Impossible Wolf
by SabrinaMagnus
Summary: Bad Wolf created herself with the intention of saving the Doctor. What would happen if, in the process of doing so, she looked through the whole of time that she had access to, and saw a most impossible girl doing that very same task, saving the Doctor, over and over again across all his lives? ABANDONED: MSG me if you want to adopt.
1. Chapter 1 - Bad Wolf

_**DISCLAIMER:**_ I do not write stories on this site for payment. I make no money from this. I don't own the sandbox, I just like to play in it.

 _ **A/N:**_ I intend NOT to do regular author notes, but they may happen. This story may be very different from what you might expect. It is an AU Sci-fi story, anything could happen. Given that it also heavily deals with "Time" it may seem to jump around compared to cannon, but this story represents its own time line and assumes the reader has a reasonably detailed knowledge of series 1-9. It starts in the last moments of the end of series 1 and rather quickly moves to the end of series 9. This story is NOT a complete rewrite, but does rewrite key moments of time and key plots of the cannon. Example, in this story, Rose was never in love with the doctor in a romantic manner. I hope you enjoy the story. Constructive criticism is welcome, flames are not.

 **Impossible Wolf**

 _ **Chapter 1: Bad Wolf**_

" _I am the Bad Wolf,_ " Rose said to the Doctor. "I create myself." It was an incredible feeling to see all of time and space the way she could in that moment. She had come here with a mission to save the Doctor, but now that the moment had come, she had a chance to do so much more. She would have to be careful, but she would _make_ this work.

"I take the words… I scatter them… in time and space," she told him. But he didn't know she was doing a lot more than that. Rose was, at that moment, part human and part TARDIS. She could see what she _needed_ to see. As she was scattering those words where they needed to go, she was also looking for other events to prepare herself for in the future. When she saw Torchwood… the Cybermen and the Daleks, the wolf in her mind howled. Then she saw the Daleks again and the reality bomb, and this time the wolf snarled angrily. She had a lot of work to do still. "A message to lead myself here," she told the Doctor.

"Rose! You've got to stop this. You've got to stop this _now_!" the Doctor pleaded with her. He was terrified for her and shocked that she wasn't dead already.

Rose looked into her mind and her DNA and made the changes she would need to live the life she wanted. She saw getting trapped in another universe and decided to use that time to trigger the changes in her human form as it was the only way to preserve the time line. She looked back on the Doctor's time line, she saw a girl tell him which TARDIS to steal, and thought it odd, but looked back further still. She saw his time in the Academy and relived it all in a fraction of a second, before placing it aside.

She looked all around Gallifrey and realized why the Doctor left, but still made use of a lot of their knowledge, placing it aside as well. She began to follow his timeline forward and saw the time war, and the Moment. She implanted a link between herself and the Moment to prevent a horrible catastrophe.

Rose began to see the same girl over and over as she looked through the Doctor's timeline and she realized the girl was helping him, protecting him from something sinister. She vowed to help this girl anyway she could, but continued onwards.

She reached out and used her power to pull Donna Noble into the TARDIS just after the Doctor's hologram shut down. She knew he would need someone to help him through his grief and that the woman would die without his help.

She guided the TARDIS where it needed to crash after he regenerated again. She saw River Song become his wife and thought it a good match, and decided to make it a mission later to save her in the Library. She saw him finally meet the Impossible Girl that she had seen through his timeline and followed that thread closely until she saw how it happened.

Clara, her name was. And she was such a brave and wonderful girl, giving her life to save the Doctor, like Rose herself had just done, only knowing it was likely to be a one-way ticket. But Rose wasn't going to let that happen. She reached out again with her power and pulled the essence of the various shards of the girl back into her original being, and added a few changes to her as well. This one deserved to make a difference.

"You've got the entire vortex runnin through your head. You're gonna _burn_!" the Doctor was telling her urgently. Why couldn't he understand that he was her best friend and she wants him to be safe and never alone? And then she realized. He didn't think he was worth it. With all the good he's done, the people and worlds he saved and will save.

"I want you safe…" she began telling him. She wanted him to know how important he was not just to her and their friendship, but to the entire universe, and even _all_ the universes to an extent. "… my Doctor. Protected from the false god."

"You cannot hurt me. I am immortal," the Dalek Emperor interrupted her. That was an interruption that she just could not let continue. She had work to do and she would be damned if these Daleks would stand in her way.

"You are tiny," she told it bluntly. There was no reason to mince words with insane Daleks, just erase them and move on. "I can see the whole of time and space, every single atom of your existence, and I divide them." She reached out with her mind and did exactly that. She focused on every atom that made them up, concentrating and preparing to shred them.

"Everything must come to dust," she said as if giving a lecture on the nature of time. "All things, everything dies." She pulled apart every atom so it no longer held a bond with anything else. She did this for each and every Dalek and their ships, one at a time, to ensure they could never come back, leaving them as just dust. "The Time War ends!"

The Emperor tried to put up a fight, tried to deny what was happing, so she made its demise slower. It should have known better than to piss her off. When it was over, she felt around with all her senses to ensure she got them all, and when she was satisfied the Daleks were no more, she got back to work.

Rose looked at the events around her getting trapped in the other universe, and was surprised to see that the Daleks there had stolen a prison ship made by the Time Lords, but also an experimental TARDIS. She looked to a point after the crisis was over, and was pleased the sphere was still there, it hadn't been sucked into the void. Then again, neither had the Doctor's TARDIS. She touched it with just enough of her essence to repair it, enhance it, and make it fully operational, as well as give her a proper personality like the Doctor's TARDIS.

She created two very special fob watches, very similar to those used by a chameleon arch. In them, she placed all the knowledge she set aside earlier, as well as a few more augmentations and memories of herself as Bad Wolf and all her plans as such. She reached across the void into the other universe, and dropped one of them to the sand in front of herself just as the Doctor's hologram vanished.

Rose then stepped forward in time in that universe, and found herself on the beach where the Doctor had just left her with his clone. She understood why he did that, but it was completely unnecessary and even a little foolish. She reached out with her power again and pulled herself back through to her own universe before the walls closed, and forward in time again to when the Void TARDIS would be repaired and complete. There she placed herself into a hammock that had been placed in a room set aside for her, and placed the second fob watch on the main console as she left.

"Rose, you've done it. Now stop," the Doctor said trying to get her to release the power, that should have killed her already, before it finally would. She had already saved his life and destroyed the Daleks, but he was afraid of what else she might try to do with that kind of power.

Rose wasn't done yet, though. She still had much to do. Some of it, however, didn't require much, and so she sent out echoes to transmit as stored holographic messages when they would be needed.

Time, ironically, was running out for her. She reached out for the penultimate time and altered the regeneration abilities of the Doctor and River Song. She didn't have the opportunity to make them such a conscious choice as she did with others, but she did make it a permanent ability before she pulled back at the sound of the Doctor's voice again.

"Just let go," he told her urgently. She was going to die before his very eyes. He couldn't do anything to stop it unless she was willing. He had to get through to her.

"How can I let go of this?" she asked. There was so much good she could do with this power, but even with the changes she made to herself, it was starting to overwhelm her. She had one last thing to do though. She couldn't let her brother figure die. She needed him, not just for brotherly advice and comradery, but also to help her advance her plans. "I bring life," she said, reaching out to him and pouring life and healing energies into him. She was starting to lose control though, and like with the Doctor and River, couldn't make his regeneration a conscious ability to adjust as he wanted. She was just glad she could make him live again to be honest.

"But this is wrong!" the Doctor said to her, still with urgency in his voice. "You can't control life and death!" He wished he could sometimes, but no one should have that kind of power. But here was his friend, his companion, doing just that. He felt a sudden grating on his time senses, a _person_ had just been transformed into a fixed point! ' _Oh no!_ ' he thought. ' _She's losing her control. She's going to die._ ' He wanted to scream because unless she was willing, he couldn't take the power from her.

"But I can," she said, the glow from her eyes fading again as she focused solely on him as she fought to regain her control. "The sun and the moon, the day and night…" she told him. It was all there for her to see and if only she had more time she could do more with it. She looked forward in time again, and saw briefly what she thought was all her hard work being shredded, and her heart broke. "But why do they hurt?" she asked him. She was trying so hard to put the power away now, before it completely overwhelmed her and destroyed her. She was able to store a fraction of that power away within herself, but the rest was killing her, and she knew it.

"The power's gonna kill you, and it's my fault!" he shouted. He didn't want her to die just because of some well-meaning mistake. She was an example of the best of human compassion, and now that was going to lead to her death. It just wasn't fair.

"I can see everything," she said as he looked away in sorrow and grief before turning back to look at her, pleading with his eyes to let him help her. "All that is… all that was… all that ever could be," she said in a pained voice. She had done what she could, but there was so much more and it hurt that she couldn't fix everything wrong in the universe in the short time she had this wonderful power.

His eyes widened as he realized she was describing something like how he could sense timelines, and how it troubled her to not be able to use what she had. He had to find a way to make that an opening if there was going to be any hope of saving her. He stood and looked at her, not as just another human, but as an equal. "That's what I see, all the time. Doesn't it drive you mad?" he asked partly in curiosity and partly as a suggestive command.

"My head," she cried. She was trying so damn hard to release the power back to the TARDIS before it could consume her, but a part of her wanted to let it. Then she saw an image flutter through her mind, a face, the girl that willingly offered herself as a sacrifice to the winds of time to save the Doctor. With one last mighty push of her power, she reached out and sealed the scar in the universe that caused the Doctor's timeline to be exposed like an open wound.

And with that final act, she was exhausted, no longer able to control what happened to her now, nor stop the splitting ache within her mind. "It's killing me," she admitted to the Doctor with a cry of pain.

"I think you need a Doctor," he told her in a way that managed to sound both cheesy and urgently serious at the same time.

She looked into his eyes as they took a step towards each other, and saw that vast mind of his working on something. Perhaps he had a plan! Maybe she would survive this after all. And then she remembered why she even had this power in the first place, to save the Doctor. Now he was going to have to save her from herself. But at least she had used that power to ensure he would be able to keep saving others as well, and that he wouldn't have to do it all alone.

The Doctor leaned in and kissed her lightly. Before, he might have been able to take the power another way, but now, he needed the proximity to be able to contain it even for a short time, so he kissed her, and drew the power into himself. As the power was flowing into himself, he used it to ensure that she was in fact, still alive. He didn't know how she survived, but she had. And then, when the he had the power drawn out of her and contained, she collapsed in his arms.

He set her down gently where he stood. He needed to do this quickly or he might not be able to regenerate. He stood back up and stared at the darkened TARDIS that she had stepped from, furious that his lovely machine would cooperate in such a dangerous plan. He did his best to make his displeasure known within his mind, before releasing the power back to the TARDIS.

He staggered as it fully left him, and he realized that even though he only held the power for a few brief seconds, he really was going to need to regenerate. He wondered how this pink and yellow human had been able to hold on to it for so long. He then picked her up and carried her into the TARDIS, taking off into the time vortex so he could regenerate safely, hopefully with a chance to explain it to Rose before he changed right in front of her.

* * *

"Where am I?" Clara said as she was falling through something she didn't have the capacity to describe. She was confused, and for some reason felt grateful to even know her own name. She suddenly felt a rush of air and a hard surface rush up to meet her from underneath.

She rolled over and tried to push herself up, feeling hard ground under her hands and knees covered by a layer of wispy fog. "I don't know where I am," she called out in a frightened voice.

"Clara," she heard a soft voice whisper from the darkness above her. "Oh, you impossible girl," the voice said again, this time sounding more concentrated. Clara whipped her head around looking for the source of the voice, until she saw a purple cloud of… something form in front of her. The edges of the cloud began to glow with a brilliant golden energy and took the shape of a girl about her age, with long, flowing golden hair and matching glowing golden eyes.

"Who are you? Where am I?" Clara asked in confusion and not a small amount of panic.

Instead of answering, the girl raised her arms slowly, her palms glowing with the same brilliant golden energy, and she was drawing in countless orbs of golden light towards her palms, and then redirecting them at high speed directly at Clara!

Clara raised her own arms in an attempt to shield herself, but found the orbs of energy absorbing directly into her skin, leaving a warm, soothing feeling behind. Her eyes sprang wide open as her memories began to come back to her with each orb that flooded into her.

"I am the Bad Wolf," the girl said after what felt like years of orbs flowing to her. Clara felt as though her life was starting to make sense now. She remembered the Doctor, the Great Intelligence, jumping into the Doctor's timeline to save him, and everything else from each of the lives she had lived.

"I created this place," Bad Wolf started, "to bring the pieces of you back together. You saved someone dear to me in ways the human mind can't yet comprehend, and in doing so, became dear to me yourself. Not only that, your actions directly and indirectly saved the whole of the multi-verse. You will _not_ be condemned to be scattered on the winds of time."

"Bad Wolf? That sounds familiar. I saw you in the Doctor's past, didn't I?"

"It will take time for you to fully reintegrate your memories, but yes."

"Where are we?" Clara asked again, trying to understand more.

"In reality, we are nowhere. This place doesn't exist. It is an abstract, a place made of thought existing only in a space between seconds but where time has no meaning."

"Clear as mud that was," Clara said with a sarcastic lilt to her voice.

Bad Wolf smiled at her. "That's that Impossible Girl I know."

"How exactly do you know me, or that nickname?"

"I am the Bad Wolf," she responded as another orb of swirling energy formed in her outstretched hand. This orb was a mix of purple and golden energy swirling together. Bad Wolf smiled, and without warning launched the ball of energy forward.

Clara gasped as the orb struck her and absorbed into her immediately. She saw flashes in her mind, glimpses of Rose Tyler and her desire to save the Doctor, like Clara herself had recently done. She also felt warm and safe in a way she couldn't put into words. "Rose?"

The girl's eyes widened a fraction at that. "Oops. I guess I gave you a few more memories than I intended. I'm starting to lose control of the power I absorbed and need to get back," she said, avoiding a direct answer. "This place will stay here within the Doctor's time line until he comes to rescue you."

Bad Wolf began to glow brighter and a faint wheezing and groaning sound could be heard as the girl began to disappear.

"Wait!" Clara shouted, but it was too late. Bad Wolf was gone, and Clara was still rather confused. Suddenly, she heard a thud, and looked around in a panic, unable to tell where it was coming from.

"Doctor?" Clara asked, hoping it was him approaching. When she got no reply and still couldn't see beyond the small area she was in, she grew worried and frightened. "Doctor!?" She called out, looking for her friend, before she broke down in tears again. "I don't know where I am," she cried softly. Maybe the time winds had destroyed her sanity and this was what going crazy felt like.

"Clara," she heard the Doctor's calm voice call out. "You can hear me, I know you can."

* * *

Captain Jack Harkness was had fallen asleep in his office in Torchwood Three. That wasn't uncommon though, which is why he had a little room set up directly beneath his office that he could get to by a locking hatch.

It was early in the morning, just before sunrise, when he was woken by an urgent beeping from his wrist device. He didn't remember setting an alarm, so he checked, and found that it was indicating a message waiting for him. He pressed the play button and was shocked the rest of the way to wakefulness when a holographic image of Rose, the girl he had thought of like a little sister, appeared from his device.

"Hello, Jack," the hologram said with a smile on her face. "If you're seeing this message, then something terrible has happened, or rather is about to happen. Either way, it can't be avoided. Not for lack of desire, but because preventing it would actually cause far greater problems. I promise to explain everything to you when I can, but for now, I need to ask you for the biggest favor of my life. Just after lunch, I need you to go to Torchwood Tower. Bring a lory.

"After things settle, but before the cleanup crews move in, I need you to get something out of there. On the ground floor, in a secure vault chamber, is a large metal sphere. Please, Jack, move it somewhere safe where it won't be damaged, destroyed, or disturbed in any way. I can't begin to describe how important it is that only you know where it is and that you don't try to force your way into it. When a girl named Clara comes to the travel office looking for you and the sphere, take her to it."

The hologram blinked off and Jack was left staring where it had been. He knew Torchwood One had something to do with the ghosts around the world and that the sphere Rose mentioned had something to do with it too, but he'd been able to get very little information from the home office about it. And now it would seem that his little sister, and by extension likely, the Doctor, were also involved.

"What the hell have you gotten yourself into, Rose," he asked himself softly. How was she involved? What was going to happen? Clean up crews must mean something big was going to happen so he should be able to get the sphere out before the chaos really starts, but why did she want it moved and left undisturbed? And who was this Clara she mentioned?

Jack left his office to prepare for a sudden trip to London and plan a steak out. It was going to be a long few days, he just knew it.

* * *

"Where are we going?" Ashildr asked in amusement and curiosity.

"Gallifrey…" Clara started. Something was niggling at the back of her mind, but she couldn't focus on that right now. "Like I said, Gallifrey," she continued before pulling a lever and the TARDIS shuddered. "The long way around."

All of a sudden, the TARDIS lurched violently in another direction causing both of them to grip the console to remain on their feet. "What was that?" Ashildr asked, just before a hologram appeared before them.

"Clara, Clara, Clara…" the hologram of a blonde girl in a pink jacket said. "I knew you were impossible, but isn't this taking it to the extreme?"

"You!" Clara exclaimed. "I know you. I've seen you before. Where have I seen you before?" she asked in confusion.

"You might recognize me," the hologram said began. "But I doubt you'd remember me. The only time we met was when you were scattered through the winds of time."

Clara gasped. Only the Doctor had found her in the abstract space within his timeline. He didn't even know how she got there or how that space came to be.

"I created a safe space for you to be put back together, as it were. A place where you could be put back together like a puzzle and from where the Doctor would be able to rescue you," the hologram spoke again. "But you were, for all intents and purposes, dead. In order to revive you, I had to add a few special pieces to your puzzle. One of those pieces was an ability similar to regeneration, but without the limits meaning it is a conscious ability and the only thing that can prevent you from regenerating is your conscious desire not to."

The two travelers were shocked at this, but Ashildr was even more shocked when the hologram turned towards her, almost as if looking right at her, and it scowled. "You, are a great mystery. I am the Bad Wolf. I have seen the whole of time and space and I _still_ do not know what to make of you. You have changed much from the simple village girl you started as. You we will decide about later."

The hologram turned back towards where Clara was standing still with a shocked look on her face. "You need to go back to Gallifrey, right now. I know it sucks having to go through what you're about to with the raven, but you're going to regenerate. They said you died on that street, but never said anything about which death. Go, regenerate, then go home and rest. When you wake up, look for a Captain Jack Harkness. You should be able to find him in a little travel office on Cardiff Bay. Tell him Rose sent you to look for Jack and the Sphere. This is urgent, your future could depend on it. Go!" And with that, the hologram blinked off.

They stared at each other for a minute, before Clara adjusted some of the controls and then headed down a hall to the wardrobe room where she had left her other clothes. If she was going to be put back into the moment, she'd better look the part.

When she came back into the console room, they were just beginning to land in the extraction chamber when she turned to speak to Ashildr. "I don't know what all happened, or what's about to happen, but if Bad Wolf was right, and I do have a future, I want to meet it with a pulse."

"How do you know you can trust her?" the other girl asked.

"I know she saved my life before. I knew it as soon as I saw her. I've _known_ her before somehow. I _have_ to trust her. As soon as I'm out those doors, you have to take this TARDIS and fly away before the Time Lords get you."

Clara walked over to the doors, turned briefly to smile at the other girl, then stepped out, closing the door behind her. She was surprised to find the outer shell was no longer a diner, but back to its gray cylindrical form. As soon as the TARDIS disappeared, a dark-skinned woman wearing the same uniform the General had walked into the room.

"Where did that TARDIS go? Where is the Doctor?" the woman asked.

"The Doctor is back with his own TARDIS. Are you… are you the General?"

"Yes," she said simply.

"Blimey, the whole regeneration business can really do a number on you, can't it?"

"Honestly," the woman said with a faint smile, "the Doctor did me a favor. The only time I've ever been a man, that last body. It's good to be back to normal."

"Well then, all's well in the world," Clara said sarcastically. "I still hate you lot for what you put the Doctor through. But I need to be put back before time will heal, isn't that right?"

"I'm sorry," the General said.

"Don't be sorry for me. Be sorry about your world and what's happened to you all to make you such a despised people."

The General hung her head, knowing that it was true, but spoke anyway. "Are you ready to be put back, then?"

"Yeah, let's get it over with," Clara said as she walked over to the still open doorway leading back out to Trap Street. "I just walk back to where I was, and time restarts, yeah?"

"Yes," the General confirmed.

"Well, here goes nothing."

"Good luck, ma'am," the General said.

Clara walked back out onto Trap Street and saw the Doctor still frozen in the doorway watching, and she wished she could do something for him to prevent him being trapped in the confession dial, but knew she couldn't.

She stepped up to where she was facing the raven and resumed her position, hoping that she would still live but not change like the Time Lords do. She rather liked herself as she was. A moment later, there was a resounding crack and the raven struck her causing her to gasp, before a plume of black smoke escaped her and she collapsed.

When she regained consciousness a few minutes later she looked around and saw no one on the street. She looked back to where the Doctor had been and saw a closed door. She realized he must have just been teleported. She did the only thing she could do… she ran. All the way out of Trap Street and back home like the Bad Wolf told her to. She sat down on her bed thinking about everything that had happened. She couldn't believe she was still alive and had a pulse again. She laid down to relax and catch her breath, and promptly fell asleep.

When Clara woke again, she realized she had been asleep for two days! She got a shower and made some breakfast while contemplating what to do next. She did trust Bad Wolf, she felt… something… like a bond of some type with her, but did she really want to go through with this? But then she remembered that it was going to be important for her future somehow, and want to get a train ticket to Cardiff.

* * *

Jack was sitting in a secret room in the travel office itself. He had closed and sealed the Torchwood Three hub years ago, but still periodically checked in on rift activity, hence the secret room with a computer terminal tied to all the instrumentation equipment.

He was surprised to hear an alarm beep indicating someone was approaching the old travel office. It too had 'closed' years ago, so no one should be coming to it. Checking the monitor, he saw a relatively short girl with shoulder length dark brown hair walking towards the seemingly abandon travel office.

Jack wondered if he was finally going to be able to fulfill Rose's last request or shoo away another local teen looking for a place to bring their friends for a part or a scare thrill. He thought back on the message Rose had somehow left for him. He had thought it was such an odd message at the time, but went along with it. After he secured the sphere, he started helping out with the cleanup and was devastated to find Rose was on the list of the dead.

He had wanted to rant and rave and take a sledge hammer to the damn sphere for the part it likely played in the events that led to her death. But Rose had asked him to keep it safe for some reason. She asked him to watch over it and take a girl to it when she came looking for him.

Wondering if that day had finally come, or if he was going to have to play the part of irate owner cleaning out an abandon office space, he walked out into the little travel office and unlocked the doors before grabbing a box and pretending to clear the place out.

A few minutes later, the door opened hesitantly, and the girl stepped in slowly. "Hello? Anyone here?"

Jack walked into the main room with the box in his hand. "The travel office is closed," he said briskly in case he needed to chase this girl away. Would be a shame to have to do that though, she was quite beautiful.

"Sorry," the girl said. "I don't mean to interrupt. I just have a quick question if you don't mind and then I'll probably be on my way."

That was new. Usually, when he had to chase people away he just had to give them a look and they apologized pretending they walked into the wrong area and ran off. "Well?"

Clara looked him over, thinking this seemingly bitter man couldn't be who she was asked to find, but had to try anyway. "Are you… Captain Jack Harkness?"

"Why would you think that?" Jack asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Rose sent me here to find Jack and a sphere."

Jack sucked in a breath and his entire demeanor softened. "Are you, Clara?"

"How did you know that?" she asked suspiciously.

"Captain Jack Harkness," he said as he reached out to shake her hand. "Rose left me a message to be expecting you." With that said, he came around the desk and led her back to the door. "I was given specific instructions to take you to the sphere," he said as he led her around the corner towards the water tower.

"And what is this sphere?" Clara asked curiously as they walked.

"No idea," he told her. "I was told that you needed to see it, though. Here we are," he said as they stepped onto the sidewalk.

"This looks more like a tower than a sphere," Clara said.

"It is, but this is the only way into the chamber anymore," he replied as he pressed a button on his wrist device and they began to descend.

"Well," Clara said as they continued downwards and she saw another section of the walk slide into place above them where they had just been. "There's something you don't see every day. And I've seen some pretty wild things."

"I'll bet you have," he said with a smirk as he stepped off the paver and led her down a tunnel off the side of the large room they had descended into. It went on like a cave, deeper underground, until it opened into a large chamber with what looked like a large metal ball.

"So, that's the sphere then," Clara decided to state the obvious. "What now?"

"She didn't leave any instructions for you on what to do when you got to it?"

"Nope. Just a message to find you and have you bring me to it."

Before either of them could say anything more, the sphere began to glow, faintly at first, but then brighter. As the glow brightened, they could see the shape changing as well, like a blob almost, reshaping itself.

When they glow disappeared, they both stared in awe. Where there had been a metal sphere, there was now a large, opaque, purple crystal in the shape of a teardrop with the tip pointing up and it had a faintly glowing purple ball at the top of it. The entire thing appeared as if it were carved out of a single giant piece of opaque amethyst.

They looked at each other in confusion mixed with amazement. It was a beautiful crystalline sculpture. They walked around it and realized that the dimensions were perfect all the way around. It seemed to be absolutely flawless. That was until a crack appeared. But it wasn't so much a crack, as it was a perfectly straight, vertical line, that grew wider as what was now obviously doors began to open.

* * *

Rose was staring at the beach where the Doctor's hologram had just been. She was trying to tell him not to be on his own, to find someone to travel with. She wanted him to never be alone again, at least not for long periods of time. His image had just flicked away, when she saw something fall to the sand.

She reached down and picked up what turned out to be a gold fob watch covered in intricate circular designs that reminded her of similar designs she had seen somewhere in the TARDIS. She flipped it over a couple times, taking in the details. She could swear she heard a faint singing melody coming from it.

Curious, she pressed the button to open the watch and was surprised when a purple mist floated out of it and swirled around her head, before seeping into her eyes. And then she saw so many things. She saw the doctor growing up on Gallifrey, lessons from the Academy, the impossible Girl that sailed through the winds of time to save the Doctor, memories of the TARDIS, and most importantly, Bad Wolf and all she had done. With a cry of surprise, Rose collapsed.

Jackie, Pete, and Micky all ran to her fearing something terrible had happened. Pete checked and found she had a strong pulse and just appeared to be exhausted and asleep. Micky picked up the open watch he found next to her and recognized the writing on it from the TARDIS. He closed it and put it into her jacket pocket, thinking it was a memento of her time with the Doctor. Pete picked her up and carried back to his jeep where they all began the long drive back to London.

Rose was back on the beach again. She knew it was coming though. She'd had years to assimilate the memories and information that Bad Wolf gave her, and now she was starting to feel the pull inside of her.

"Doctor," she said to the clone. "I am so sorry that I can't stay. I wish I could help you, and later I will a bit, but right now, I have to go," she told him as she pulled him in for a hug as he looked at her in confusion. The Doctor had just left, so how was she going to go anywhere but with them?

Rose then let go and pulled her mum into a tight hug. "I love you, Mum. No matter what happens, always remember that. I promise I'll visit when I can. I should be back soon if everything works out."

She took a step back, and they stared at her in shock as her normally honey colored eyes suddenly flared bright purple, before she was surrounded by a brilliant golden glow. The Doctor's clone gasped.

"Bad Wolf," he said softly while Rose nodded at him. He then surprised her by smiling wildly at her. "I have no idea what's going on, but you've survived this long, so I'm sure wherever you're going, you're going to be brilliant!"

"What's happening? What's Bad Wolf? What do you mean going?" Jackie asked in concern until her daughter smiled brightly at her.

"The Doctor will explain Bad Wolf, but I'm about to be pulled back to our universe, Mum. I love you and I'll see you soon." There was a bright flash of golden light after she said that, and then she was gone.

When Rose reappeared, she was in a hammock in a room that looked like it was meant to be a bedroom, aside from the hammock. She was pleasantly surprised however to find that the hammock was quite comfortable.

" _Hello, my Wolf._ " She heard in her mind. She was a little surprised at first, but then remembered from Bad Wolf how she would bond quickly with the Void TARDIS that she should now be in.

"Hello. Are you the TARDIS I was told I was transporting to?"

" _I am. On the table next to you, are the essence container that your other-self left for your friend, as well as some other items I thought would be useful for you._ "

Rose looked at what seemed to be a nightstand, and found the golden fob watch that she knew was for Clara. Next to it were two wrist watches and two other devices that resembled her Doctor's sonic. They were a hand held tubular shape, but with a black and purple color scheme. Instead of the short round emitter at the top, there was a small rectangular black cage with four small translucent purple tubes surrounding a slightly larger similarly colored tube in the middle that protruded just slightly from the angular roof-like portion of the cage section. Instead of an end cap on the bottom, it tapered down to slightly smaller black dials with a few purple rings.

Rose thought they were lovely and put one of them in her pocket before placing one of the watches on her wrist. As she did that, the TARDIS spoke in her mind again.

" _The watches are remotes to call for me if you need, as well as a communication device and a teleport. Basically, they are personal computers that can be worn on your wrist. The sonics can be plugged into a special port on the main console to recharge should you ever drain the power supply. Both the wrist computers and sonics can be operated with a thought._ "

"That's brilliant!" Rose exclaimed as she put the remaining three devices in another pocket so she didn't lose them. "I wonder why the Doctor's TARDIS didn't make something like that for him."

" _As much as I love my sister TARDIS, she is an older model and is slower in picking up such designs, not to mention the Doctor is not the easiest three-dimensional being to live with._ "

Rose laughed at that. "That's the truth, but he's worth the trouble," she replied as she left the room and walked towards where she assumed the console room would be. "Did the Daleks damage you too badly after they stole you?" she asked with some concern.

" _I have had sufficient time to remove all of their technology and repair all the damage they had done. Thanks to yourself and my sister TARDIS, I have even been able to perfect the advancements that made me such a precious secret experiment of the Time Lords._ "

Rose entered the console room and looked around in amazement. She had only really seen the Doctor's TARDIS before, and it was a mess of bits and bobs, as if he designed it especially so no one else could understand it. This console room though, was a work of art.

It was as if the outer shell took the shape of a sphere specifically to reflect this room. It was dark colors, mostly black and purple like her sonic, but with neat and organized panels on the side consoles. The central console was orderly with regular nobs, switches, buttons, dials, levers, and other assorted controls.

In the center of the main console, was a large translucent tube that had unbroken glowing purple rods surrounding a slightly larger central rod that was not actually connected to its counterpart below it.

Around the walls were various light fixtures that gave it a futuristic look, with tracks of light spanning the entire circumference of the room and along the rib-like struts that seemed to hold the walls together.

Rimming the upper portion of the room was a dark gray catwalk that led off to various doors, and below was another level with some access for repairs under the main console. All in all, it was absolutely beautiful!

"Oh, you are a beautiful girl, aren't you? I never used to be big into technology or gadgets or all that, but I can see now that it would be very easy to call you sexy," Rose said appreciatively to the TARDIS as it came to life around her.

" _Thank you, my Wolf. It is a nice change to be appreciated. I detect two life forms approaching outside. Would you like me to change the outer shell to make entry and exit easier for you?_ "

"I didn't realize you could do that," Rose said with some surprise. "I suppose I just got used to the fact that the Doctor never fixed the chameleon circuit in his TARDIS. I admit to being quite fond of that blue box, but I would hate to cause any confusion. Can you make the outside into something that represents your true beauty and uniqueness?"

A hologram appeared in front of her showing a beautiful crystalline teardrop shape in a deep purple color and she loved it right away. "That's perfect. Will it take long to form?"

Rather than answer in her mind, the TARDIS vanished the hologram and then Rose watched as the doors changed before her very eyes. They became the same color, texture, and shape that had been displayed in the hologram and she was enthralled by them. She walked up to the doors and lightly stroked them, feeling the crystal-like material beneath her fingers.

"Dear, please set this as the new default outer shell. I doubt I'll ever want to change it, but just in case, this is what it should always revert to after a change," she said and the TARDIS hum changed pitch briefly in agreement.

"Well," Rose said after a moment to admire the change, "I guess it's time to welcome our guests." She took hold of the two inlaid handles etched into the crystal, and gently pulled the twin doors inwards to see a shocked Jack and Clara standing outside. "Did you miss me?" she asked with a cheeky smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Rose!" Jack exclaimed in shock as he rushed up to her and pulled her into a hug. "I thought the Doctor took you back to the parallel world to be trapped again."

Rose chuckled a little as she returned the hug. "Breath Jack. He did take me back there, so that I could help the clone Doctor, but Bad Wolf had some other ideas. I can still help him some, but that doesn't have to happen right away."

Jack stepped back slightly and took a good look at Rose. She was really there and alive. "How did you get back if he left you in the other universe though?"

"Bad Wolf pulled me back," Rose told him before she stepped away for a moment and turned to the girl that was there with him. "Hello, Clara. You might not rem…"

Before Rose could continue, Clara pulled her into an equally fierce hug, causing Rose's eyes to go wide with surprise as a little squeak escaped her lips. "It was you! I thought it was some cosmic being called Bad Wolf that stitched me back together and saved me from the time winds, but it was you all along, wasn't it?"

"How did you remember that?" Rose asked in surprise. "Those memories occurred within an abstract that your mind shouldn't be able to comprehend yet."

"I don't remember it all," Clara admitted. "But some bits and pieces started coming back to me after I regenerated."

" _You_ regenerated?" Jack asked Clara in surprise.

"It's not exactly the same as a Time Lord's regeneration, Jack," Rose told him. "And I'm sorry I didn't have time to do the same for you when I brought you back. Clara and I can choose not to regenerate if we want to," she told him with a sad look and refusal to meet his eyes. She felt bad about his extended life not being a choice.

"You can regenerate too?" he asked her. The shocks just kept on coming, until he realized something. "I don't have to worry about outliving my little sister," he said in a low voice filled with awe.

"You don't hate me?" Rose asked him with a hint of surprise.

"I won't lie," he told her seriously. "There have been times when I wish I didn't have this very mixed blessing. But knowing that I'm not alone in it makes it even more worth it."

"I hope the Doctor takes it as well when he finds out he doesn't have a limit on his regenerations," Rose said quietly.

"Why don't we go track him down and tell him then?" Clara suggested.

"We will, eventually. But there are some things to do first," Rose said as she pulled the golden fob watch from her pocket and handed it to Clara. "You need to open that. It will complete your transformation that your regeneration started."

Clara did just that before anyone could say anything else. A purple mist enveloped her and settled into her eyes just like with Rose and the information flowing through her mind made her eyes get even wider in shock, before she collapsed into Rose's arms.

"What just happened?" Jack asked as he helped Rose to pick Clara up and take her down a hallway into a room that had a hammock in it. Once the girl was in the hammock, Rose took a deep breath.

"I have a lot to fill you in on Jack," she said as she led him out of her room and closed the door so as not to disrupt the sleeping girl's rest. "But wait till we get back to the console room at least. Clara needs rest to assimilate the changes in her mind."

"Okay. You can start with how the sphere is no longer a sphere and looks like a less chaotic version of the TARDIS," he told her as they walked back to the console room.

* * *

"So, you have your own TARDIS that can travel between universes?" Jack asked after Rose finished filling him in on everything.

"You make it sound like I own the TARDIS or something. It's more like she's a friend that's helping me out," Rose told him. "She can talk to me in my mind since I bonded with her."

"Seriously?" he asked with more than a hint of skepticism.

"Dear, could you please turn the lights off and back on again to show the good Captain here just how alive you really are?"

The lights in the console room turned off. Then a row of dimly lit decorative light fixtures same on showing various shades of blues and purples. Next came the brighter upper ring of small light panels around the top edge of the circular walls, the lights themselves chasing around the room three times before all turned on and brightened the room considerably.

"You've amused her, Jack. I think she likes you," Rose said with a half smirk.

"It's my winning smile and charming personality," he said has he jokingly preened.

"Come on over here," Rose said, still chuckling slightly as she walked over to one of the side control panels that housed a communications system.

"What's this section," Jack asked, having never seen any controls other than the central console in the Doctor's TARDIS.

"Communications," Rose said as she pulled out her sonic and started buzzing it over Jack's vortex manipulator for a moment before she pointed it at the control panel. "There, now you always have a link to us as long as we're in the same universe." She then repeated the process connecting his device with her own watch.

"Too bad you can't fix the rest of it," he said only half-jokingly.

"Oh, I didn't realize it was broken," Rose said taking her sonic to his manipulator again as he explained.

"Not so much broken as disabled by the Doctor, again."

"He just doesn't trust anyone, does he?" Rose said with some sorrow as she reactivated the device, and fixed some of the glitches it had and adding a couple little functions to it. "There, now it's fully functional, can also create a shield around you to stop most weapons fire, and has a tiny little deadlock seal around the main casing so the Doctor can't so easily meddle with it again. The deadlock can be turned on or off with a triple press of the secondary function key."

"I really need to get one of those," Jack said admiring the sonic.

"I thought you were more the sonic blaster type, Jack?" she said with another half smirk and a mental question to the TARDIS.

"That got destroyed a long time ago, but it was already useless then as I could no longer get battery modules for it," he told her.

"Is that so?" Rose quipped just before the TARDIS materialized a new sonic blaster onto the console next to him with a manual.

"WHOA! How did you do that?" Jack asked in shock as he picked up the blaster and looked it over with an admitting eye.

"I didn't." Rose admitted with a smile. "I just asked the Dear TARDIS if she knew where we could get something like that for you and instead she made it for you. Rechargeable with some new features she told me. I told you she liked you."

"Thank you," Jack said with an affectionate pat on the console, which caused the lights to flicker happily. "So, what's next?" he asked as he turned back to Rose. "Off to Pete's world?"

"Not yet," Rose told him. "Clara needs to rest first and when I went through what she is, I was out for a few days."

"Well then, how about we go get some dinner?" he asked with his usual disarming smile.

* * *

When Clara woke, she knew some days had passed, again. Most tellingly was her urgent need to use the restroom. She climbed out of the hammock, barely registering that's what she had been sleeping in, and rushed to what she assumed to be the restroom and was thankful she was right. After that was taken care of, she stripped off her clothes and took a long hot shower to wash away her few days of grime and give herself a chance to think.

While she had been unconscious, she had remembered all the different times a part of herself spent across the Doctor's timeline. She learned all about Bad Wolf, lessons the Doctor learned at the Academy and ones he missed or paid little attention to. She learned about TARDISes and time. She remembered everything about being uploaded into the data cloud, and the skills she picked up in it. She also remembered when she was stitched back together in a place that was nowhere and nowhen, and how close she became with Rose, or Bad Wolf, or whatever she was called at the time. She knew it was Rose's compassion that was the driving force behind Bad Wolf though.

It was all a lot to take in. She felt like her mind had been expanded to hold all these memories and new knowledge and senses. She briefly wondered if she was a Time Lord now, but after putting a hand to her chest, found she still only had one heart.

Stepping out of the shower, she dried off and went about her other morning routines before walking back to the dressing area where she had left her clothes, but found them to be missing. Where she had placed them, she now found two choker style necklaces that looked to be made from a beautiful dark purple metal of some kind with an amethyst in the same teardrop shape of this TARDIS attached in the middle.

Picking one up, she stood in front of the full-length mirror and put it around her neck to see how it might look. She was surprised when the ends sealed themselves together and the necklace began to glow. She stared with wide eyes at the mirror as a ripple of energy swept down her body leaving clothes in its wake.

She was now wearing a nice white shirt with a soft black jumper over it. Looking further down, she saw a short but not tiny skirt the same shade of dark purple as her necklace, followed by black tights that flowed all the way to her feet. She was surprised that shoes weren't part of the outfit, but realized that her feet still felt protected while still being able to acutely feel the floor beneath her.

Thinking the other necklace must be for Rose, she put it into one of the little hand pockets the jumper came with and realized the pockets were a lot bigger on the inside. Clara walked back to the bedroom and to the door, only after opening it did she realize this must be Rose's room. On the door was etched a wolf howling up at a moon that was shaped like a rose in bloom. It was a very pretty design and an amusing way to label the door. She was about to go looking for Rose when Rose found her.

"Good morning, Clara. How are you feeling?" Rose asked with concern.

"Fine," Clara replied as she turned to face her. "Great actually."

"That's good. I was just about to grab a quick shower before we head off to get some breakfast, so hopefully you can join us," Rose said as she reached for the door.

"Oh, here," Clara said as she pulled the matching necklace out of her pocket. "I just had a shower and when I got out, my clothes were gone and these were in their place. I accidentally put one on and it created these clothes for me."

"Thanks, I was wondering what I was going to do. Three days without a change was starting to drive me nuts," Rose said with a slightly forced laugh. "That reminds me, I have something for you too that the TARDIS made." She pulled the watch and sonic from her extra pocket and handed them over to Clara who looked at them with the same awe she had the necklace.

"These are lovely. Thank you," she said, and then patted the wall, adding, "both of you."

"I'll explain about them on our way to breakfast," Rose said. "Right now, I just want to get a shower so we can go get some food."

Clara laughed and stepped out of the way while Rose hurried into her room and to the shower. Clara continued on towards where she assumed the console room was as she placed the watch on her wrist and the sonic in her pocket until she learned a bit more about them. She walked along deep in thought. Something seemed a little off about Rose. While she had only 'known' Rose for a few minutes in the 'real world' or however you want to describe reality, she now had all her memories of all her shattered selves, as well as her time in an indescribable abstract time and space where Bad Wolf, or rather Rose, had stitched her back together. Her memories indicated they had grown quite close in that time and place, especially with that last blast of purple and gold energy. It had felt like they had shared something deeply personal but there was no real context to it, especially with the memories only now having been returned to her. It was all rather sudden, but still, there seemed to be something different about Rose, something she couldn't put her finger on. She was having a hard time describing even in her own mind what seemed to be off. It was as if the Rose she now remembered was behind a pane of glass that was fogged over.

When she found the console room, she put those worries aside as she also found Jack looking at his vortex manipulator as if it was the most fascinating thing he'd ever seen. "Wha'chya doin?"

"Good morning, sleepy head," he said as he looked up at her. "Rose fixed this for me and now I can even use it just by thinking what I want to do with it."

"Huh, I wonder…" Clara started and then concentrated on her feet for a moment, and then some low-heeled shoes appeared, causing her to gain an inch of height and Jack to whistle appreciatively.

"That's a neat trick. How'd you do that?" he asked her.

"Found this earlier," she said pointing to her necklace, "where I had left my clothes when I went for a shower. Tried this on and it made clothes for me, nice ones at that. Figured if you can think at your vortex manipulator, maybe I could with this."

He turned his arm a bit and used his manipulator to scan her, occasionally tapping a control here and there. "Huh. That's an interesting idea. Clothes made of nanites, created, stored, and controlled by the computer core which is your necklace."

"Well now… that is a brilliant idea. Maybe this TARDIS doesn't need a huge wardrobe like the Doctor's. Maybe it's just got a little closet full of these little beauties," she mused.

"We can check after we get back from breakfast. I wouldn't mind one if we can find one in a style that's more… me. But I wouldn't ever want to give up this coat… too many fond memories with this coat."

Clara thought about it for a moment, and an identical coat, but sized for her, materialized around her. "A coat like this?" She asked with a smarmy grin, before focusing again, vanishing it.

"That's just cheating," he responded with mock outrage.

"Still, that's some really handy technology. Never have to buy another outfit again, or even have to worry about packing away your wardrobe if you move," she said with a note of admiration in her voice. "I'm assuming the necklace keeps the nanites in a pocket dimension."

"What makes you say that?" Jack asked curiously.

"Over the last few days in the land of nod," Clara said sarcastically, "I assimilated a lot of technical and theoretical knowledge. It's still a bit overwhelming honestly."

"So, it creates and stores nanites in a pocket dimension," he suggested, "and beams them out to take the shape of clothes that you think about? Imagine what other uses you could use such technology for," he said with a hint of awe in his voice.

"Reckon we'll find out," Rose said as she came up behind them. She had her necklace on and for her it created fairly long purple jacket that reached to about her knees, a dark gray tee shirt, snug but not tight black jeans, and black sneakers with purple trim and laces. "Our watches have a similar technology built into them apparently, but I haven't really explored that yet."

Jack's eyes bugged out at that idea. "I'm tempted to skip breakfast and start looking for a storage closet where cool toys like that are stored!"

Rose laughed as his exuberance. "We can look for the 'toy room' later, Jack."


	2. Chapter 2: Reunions

_**DISCLAIMER:**_ I do not write stories on this site for payment. I make no money from this. I don't own the sandbox, I just like to play in it.

 _ **Chapter 2: Reunions**_

"Jack," Rose began as the three were exploring the library in the TARDIS. "I've been thinking about something."

"About what?" he asked her.

"I want to go and visit my mum, which will also mean seeing the other Doctor. Our Doctor was right about something though. He shouldn't be left on his own," she told him.

"And you've had a brain wave about that, have you?" Clara asked.

"Just the start of an idea, really." Rose confirmed.

"You want _me_ to be his minder?" Jack asked in confusion.

"Not really," Rose confessed. "But the thing is, the other Doctor only has a human lifespan. He won't be able to help that universe forever, or even for a long time."

"And you think he'd be able to teach me while we travel together and I could take over for him when he passes?" Jack asked with a sigh while Clara looked at them both deep in thought. She had an idea, but it had a lot more variables.

"I don't want my big brother to feel stuck there, though, depending on someone bringing this TARDIS to go back and forth between worlds," she said in a miserable tone.

"What if there was another option?" Clara asked hesitantly.

Rose reached out and took Clara's hand in her own, holding it gently. "I don't want to lose you to another universe either. We've only just started getting to know each other as people rather than concepts in an abstract space while stitching you back together."

Clara smiled softly at that. "I don't mean myself, though," she said as she lightly squeezed Rose's hand in her own.

"You can't mean Rose," Jack started to protest.

"No, I don't mean Rose," Clara confirmed. "But there is someone that might benefit from the experience as much as the other Doctor would."

"Then who?" Rose asked in confusion.

"Me," Clara said.

"But you just said not you," Jack said just as confused.

"No. She calls herself 'Me' but when I met her, she was called Ashildr," she clarified.

"She's the one with the TARDIS that you went back to Gallifrey on, isn't she?" Rose asked while remembering something from Bad Wolf. "She's also the one that set you up to be killed if I recall correctly," she continued with a dark look.

"That was an accident," Clara confirmed. "She really didn't mean for that to happen and was genuinely sorry for my stupid mistake."

"I don't trust her," Rose said bluntly, feeling overprotective.

"She's not perfect," Clara agreed. "She's made some pretty bad mistakes. But hasn't everyone at some point? Even the Doctor?"

"She's got a point there, Rosie," Jack said after they all were silent for a moment.

Rose dropped Clara's hand and folded her arms across her chest while mumbling something about wiggle room, before stating the obvious. "I don't like her."

"Rose Tyler, the Big Bad Wolf, my little sister, the girl that the Doctor said tried to befriend a _Dalek_ , doesn't like someone?"

Clara looked at Rose carefully, thinking there was something else going on that Rose wasn't telling them. She felt like it should be obvious, right under her nose.

Rose threw her hands up in the air. "Alright, alright," she said in exasperation. "We can take her to meet the other Doctor, but you two," she said pointing at Jack and Clara in turn, "will do the explaining. I want nothing to do with that… that…" She huffed and left two rather confused people standing there in the library.

"Do you have any idea what just happened?" Jack asked Clara.

"Don't ask me," she said, just as confused. "She's supposed to be _your_ little sister."

"Yeah," he started. "And that's why I'm going to let her cool off for a bit before trying to talk to her about that."

 **.oOo.**

It was later after they had all just finished lunch and Clara went ahead to the console room when Jack tried to talk with her about whatever might be bugging her.

"Hey, Rosie, you ready to talk now?" he asked her as she was standing in the doorway of the kitchen they had discovered the day before Clara had woken up.

"About what?" she asked mildly from where she stopped in the doorway.

"About why you want to tar and feather someone that you haven't even really met."

Rose glared at him for a moment before responding. "I don't know what you are talking about," she said and then walked off to the console room to get the task over with.

As soon as she entered the room, Rose went right to the main console adjusting various controls and checking one of the swivel screens. A moment later, Jack walked in and Clara gave him a questioning look. He just shrugged his shoulders and sat in one of the railing chairs.

"This is going to be a little tricky," Rose said, not looking up from what she was doing at the console. "I'm going to track her from when she leaves Gallifrey, and when she gets far enough away, I'm going to materialize us around her capsule. You two can enter it and explain while I take us right back to the cave to drop it off."

"Why are you dropping off her TARDIS? Shouldn't we bring it to the other universe for them to use?" Jack asked curiously.

"It's not _her_ TARDIS and it would die in the other universe as it doesn't have the same capabilities as this one," Rose explained sharply. "The Doctor gave his clone a chunk of the TARDIS so he could grow one of his own. I'll take him to a good place to do that. And then jump forward in time so he can pick it up. With that one being grown there, it will be attuned to that universe and thus be safe."

Rose finished her adjustments and without another word, disengaged the hand brake and pulled the main throttle levers, causing the time rotor to activate and that familiar woosh woosh sound grew as they entered the time vortex and approached where Gallifrey would be.

Not long after, the TARDIS jolted a little as they suddenly switched course to follow the departing TARDIS away until it broke free of Gallifrey's time zone, thankfully remaining a generic capsule and not resuming its previous shape of a diner. After adjusting a few more controls to initiate the reverse landing sequence, the capsule began to appear in the console room in front of the doors.

As soon as the materialization was complete, the TARDIS jolted again causing Jack and Clara to look at her in concern as Rose furiously worked at the controls to take them back to the cave where they had been sort of hiding out. When Rose didn't say anything, Jack and Clara sighed and walked into the capsule to explain what was happening. When its door closed, Rose let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.

When they had landed, Rose quickly dematerialized around the other capsule to reappear on the other side of the cave. She adjusted a few controls that the TARDIS had told her were specifically for traveling between universes, and then sat down in the pilot seat to wait for the others to enter.

They took their time explaining what was going on as it was nearly an hour later as Rose was looking through the various functions of her watch that the doors opened and Clara, Jack… and the other one walked in.

"Right then," Rose said with false cheer as she sprang up from her seat and stepped over to the controls. "You all can explain the situation to the Doctor while I catch up with mum."

"Rose wait," Clara said just as Rose disengaged the hand brake and stilled, waiting for her to continue but not looking up.

Jack sighed, not being used to this unpredictable version of Rose but having seen virtually identical behavior before from the Doctor. She, like he had seen in the Doctor, was coiled tight like a spring.

"Maybe you should sit down and talk to Ashildr about what you know of this version of the Doctor we're going to meet?" Clara suggested.

Rose's head snapped up to look sharply at her and Clara was surprised to see a faint golden mist swirling in her eyes, before she blinked and it was gone.

"Hold on to something, this is going to be bumpy," Rose said as if she hadn't heard such an outrageous suggestion just before she pointedly pulled the throttle levers. The TARDIS lurched violently one way and then the other as it shook about while the others scrambled to grab hold of the railing.

This continued on for over a minute, before they were all nearly thrown to the floor with one last violent jolt to the side, and things finally settled down and Rose began the landing sequence. As soon as they were fully materialized, Rose stiffly walked passed them all and out the doors to see she shocked faces of the other Doctor and her mum, standing on the beach just a moment after she had left them previously.

Her face softened into a warm smile as she saw them. "Hello, Doctor. I'll talk with you in a little bit. Right now, I want to talk with Mum for a bit," Rose said as she looped her arm around her mother's arm and led her down the beach a little ways and closer to the water's edge to talk.

 **.oOo.**

The Doctor was standing there on the beach of Bad Wolf Bay next to Jackie Tyler as they both watch Rose disappear in a mist of glowing golden energy that looked like what he remembered of Bad Wolf. He knew that if Rose had survived this long with even a tiny part of that power still within her, then she was going to be okay, and probably fantastic.

They had just turned around to begin the walk towards the nearest town, when they heard the most impossible sound behind them, causing them both to whip around and stare as a dark purple crystal in the shape of a giant teardrop began materializing before them.

When Rose stepped out he was stunned silent. He had never seen Rose look that angry before, and he had seen her wipe out a fleet of Daleks! It only took a second thought for a warm smile to replace her furious scowl as she led her mother away to talk. He was even more surprised when the doors opened again and three people stepped out, one whom he recognized.

"Captain? What's going on?" he asked Jack. He noticed that of the two girls with Jack, one of them looked mildly annoyed but with a touch of excitement, and the other kept looking in Rose's direction with concern written all over her face.

"That's a rather interesting story," Jack said, and the three of them proceeded to fill the Doctor in on what all had been going on, including Ashildr's history in brief.

"So that," that Doctor started as he pointed at the crystal teardrop behind the group, "is the void ship, which was really an experimental TARDIS and works properly now so can hop between universes?"

"It's a bit more complicated than that," Jack said. "Or rather, it was a hell of a bumpy ride getting here, but other than a lot of shaking about, everything else seemed fine."

"And you," he said looking at Ashildr, "would like to become my companion?"

"These two," she responded nodding at Clara and Jack in turn, "seem to think it would be a good idea, and they made some pretty compelling arguments for doing so."

"But not Rose?" he stated more than asked with a raised eyebrow.

Ashildr _snorted_ at that. "Your precious Rose won't even acknowledge my existence let alone speak a word to me. Even the hologram message that she left as Bad Wolf for Clara scowled at me… and it was a recording."

"What did you do to her?" the Doctor asked.

"Nothing!" she nearly shrieked. "I didn't even 'meet' here until just before we came here yet from her demeanor, you'd think I'd just imploded her universe or something."

Clara glanced over to where Rose was talking to her mum quietly. There was a puzzle there and she was missing some key pieces. The Doctor saw the look of concern on Clara's face and something clicked into place in his mind.

"Oh. My. God!" the Doctor said as he smacked himself in the head. "I'm so thick! I can't believe I didn't see it before. Then again, I sure as hell wouldn't have expected it either. Isn't that just wizard. Blimey, there's gonna be some fireworks when that penny drops."

"Doctor," Jack interrupted. "You're rambling again. What did you figure out?"

"Oh. Oh no. I'm not touching that. I'd rather chew on a pear than that piece of gossip."

"Doctor," Clara growled, causing the others to look at her curiously. "If you know what's wrong with Rose, you damn well better tell me."

"Nothing's _wrong_ per se," her told her. "But I've seen her act like that once before, though admittedly not as intense." He turned to Jack before speaking again. "So have you."

"What?" Jack asked with a confused expression. "When?"

"Lynda-with-a-y," the Doctor told him with a raised eyebrow.

"Ly… wait… you mean on the game station?" Jack asked incredulously.

"Yup," the Doctor said, popping the p.

"But that would…" Jack started to say, before his eyes nearly popped out of his head. "You have got to be kidding me! Please tell me it's just a coincidence that she wiped out a fleet of Daleks that very same day."

"Of course it was, Jack. The two were almost completely unrelated."

"What the hell are you two on about?" Clara asked in frustration.

"The Doctor's right, Clara. I'm not getting in the middle of that. I like my head right where it is, in the middle of my shoulders."

Clara looked like she was getting ready to object, but was interrupted by the sound of Rose's voice. "Let's go, Doctor. We'll be back in a few minutes and we'll all be on our way."

The Doctor literally jumped at the chance to leave such a domestic conversation and practically ran over to Rose's TARDIS, stepping in right behind her and her mum. The idea that he was now alone in a TARDIS with Rose and her _mum_ being the less domestic of the situations twisted his brain for a moment, but he went with it.

"Right then," Rose said as she dematerialized them and sent them into the vortex. "Come over here, Doctor, and take a look at some possible places that would be good for you to grow your TARDIS. We can plant her and then jump forward in time to pick her up."

"That's a brilliant idea. This is a rather short list, though," he said as he looked at the planets listed on the screen with snippets of info about them.

"Be fair. The TARDIS hasn't been in this universe very long. It's not like she'd been able to send a command back in time to do a longer scan. This list is a list of planets that scans indicate are identical or similar or better than their counterparts from our universe."

"Wait a minute… Gallifrey is on this list!" the Doctor said with wide eyes.

"Well then, let's have a look see, shall we?" Rose asked as she sent them off towards Gallifrey from this universe. She had to wonder though. If the Time Lords did exist in this universe, where was the Doctor?

When they landed, everyone was surprised to hear the Cloister bell ding at them once. Rose checked the scanners and saw an automated quarantine beacon broadcasting. "What is Chen 7?" Rose asked.

"What?!" the Doctor shrieked as he ran over to looked at the scanners. After looking through some of the information displayed, he stared in horror. "So that's why there are no Time Lords in this universe. They were wiped out by a plague."

"A plague!?" Jackie screeched. "What's keeping us safe?"

"Besides the fact that according to this screen the TARDIS has erected a sterilizing field around the outer shell, the fact that each of us only has one heart."

"It only kills you if you have two hearts?" Jackie asked.

"Yes. But it doesn't matter because even the plague would have died off by now. This message is over two million years old," he said with some sadness.

"I'm sorry, Doctor," Rose said with genuine regret.

"Still," the Doctor started. "Everything looks to be in surprisingly good condition for being abandoned for so long… of course! The nanobots must still be functioning."

"Like nanogenes but not for living beings?" Rose asked.

"Exactly. Nanite maintenance systems to keep the cities intact. This will be perfect for growing a TARDIS. We even landed in the nursery. I'll just pop out and plant the coral." He said as he ran to the doors and stepped out.

When he came back in he had another idea. "Since we have this TARDIS to go forward and pick it up, and there's no one on the planet to interfere, I figure rather than trying that little speed cheat that Donna suggested, we can just go forward and let it grow naturally."

"D-Do you want to do the honors, Doctor? Take us forward to see your brand new TARDIS?" Rose asked him as she stepped away from the controls.

The Doctor smiled fondly at her. "One last adventure together then, Rose Tyler?" He stepped up to the controls and found them to be far less complicated than the way he had his previous desktop setup. It was kind of refreshing, he thought, and he considered using a similar layout in the new TARDIS.

As soon as they landed, the Doctor and Rose slowly walked to the doors together, with Jackie staying back to give them some time alone to say goodbye. When they stepped out, they saw the finished capsule sitting before them, new and sparkling.

"You know, Doctor, that you can tweak things a bit with the chameleon circuit to make it programmable, right? Or just ask her to change the outer shell to something you like," Rose said with a nod to the large purple crystal they had just stepped out of.

"I honestly hadn't thought about that," he admitted. "That is a beautiful shell by the way. Did you pick it out?"

"No. I just asked the TARDIS to make the shell something that reflected just how beautiful and amazing she really was, and she came up with that. But I loved it so much it's now the default shape to revert to in case it ever needs changing for whatever reason."

"Maybe I'll go with a black box this time," he mused. "Add to the mystery."

Rose smiled softly at him. "Shall we take a look inside, Doctor?"

He walked over to the door and ran his hand down it affectionately. He had only seen them in the workshops before or before they were mature in the nurseries. This was a brand new, ready to bond TARDIS. Gently, he pushed the door open and they stepped inside.

Rose watched him fondly as he walked slowly around the console, testing switches, knobs, dials and patting it again with affection. It was surprisingly sweet to watch. She walked over to him as he stood in front of the monitor built into the console and hugged him tight.

"The Doctor, in the TARDIS. Just as it should be," she told him with a smile.

"Onwards and upwards," he replied, returning the smile.

"See ya, Doctor. I'm gonna take mum home and then pick up Jack and Clara to head back to our universe so I can sleep for a week," she said jokingly. "But I'll come visit, since I have a Void TARDIS."

"The Bad Wolf, sailing the universes. That's gonna be an adventure," he said lightly.

Rose walked to the door, looking back at him with a fond smile, before stepping out and going back to her TARDIS to take her mum home and have a quick visit with Pete and Tony, before heading back to her proper universe.

 **.oOo.**

They had been back in their home universe for two days now, when Clara tried to confront Jack about what was going on with Rose. She had seemed to be back to her normal chipper self, but there was something… else… just below the surface. Jack admitted that she was probably cooled off by now, but still refused to say anything more.

Clara tried asking the TARDIS what was going on, now that she could mentally communicate with the amazing ship, but all she would say was that Rose was mad at herself, not them. The TARDIS did at least guide her to where Rose was currently exploring the interior.

That was how Clara found Rose in a zero-gravity astronomy room, looking like she was floating in space as she looked around at the stars, galaxies, and nebulae that lit up the simulated sky as she floated around them, admiring the beauty of each.

Clara stepped into the room and instantly started floating. She wanted to go and talk to Rose though, and somehow ended up drifting towards the blonde girl slowly. "Interesting room you've discovered," Clara said to announce her presence.

Rose whipped around in surprise. "Clara! I didn't hear you come in. It's beautiful, isn't it?" she asked to hide her surprise.

"It is," Clara admitted. "But that's not why I'm here, and I think you know that."

"I told you," Rose said with a sigh. "I'm fine."

"Do you miss her?" Clara asked. She was concerned about Rose and wanted to help, even if she didn't want her help.

"Miss her?!" Rose asked incredulously. "Part of me wishes the Doctor hadn't let her into that TARDIS and instead just let her rot there at the end of the universe."

The venom with which she spoke was the real shock to Clara. She might have only technically met Rose about week ago, but the memories Bad Wolf had left her with in the mix of knowledge made her feel like Rose was an old, dear friend. To hear her talk with such malice towards another person sent a shiver down her spine, and not in a good way.

"Why, though?" Clara asked in exasperation. "You know the memories Bad Wolf gave me. In none of them did you ever show this kind of vitriol towards anyone."

"What does it matter?" Rose asked getting sick of this topic yet again.

"Because I can tell there's something else going on, and I want to help you," she responded honestly. Then she tried a different angle. "Who's Lynda-with-a-y?"

Rose looked startled at that question. "I know for a fact that wasn't part of what Bad Wolf gave you."

"No," Clara admitted. "I heard the other Doctor tell Jack that was the only other time he'd seen you behave like you were."

Rose hung her head and a light gravity asserted itself in the room, causing them both to float gently to the grass covered floor below them. "She was just a stupid girl in the wrong place at the wrong time," she told Clara.

"How so?"

"The Doctor is quite possibly the best friend I will ever have had," Rose said seeming to change the subject. "But when I first met him, he had just recently survived the Time War. He was sore and cross… so full of hurt that he wouldn't let anyone see, but somehow, I did."

"That must have been hard," Clara said softly, knowing exactly how difficult it was to see someone in pain and not know what to do.

"He asked me to travel with him. And I said no." Clara was really surprised at that, and Rose explained. "My ex, Micky, had just been through a typical local's encounter where the Doctor is concerned. I thought I should take him home, make sure he didn't go too deep into shock and such. I was also thinking about mum, how she had just survived an attack by shop window dummies…"

Rose had a far-away look on her face as she told the story. "We were just leaving, having watched the Doctor disappear in his magical machine… when we heard the sound of it returning. I turned and watched as that blue box reappeared… I can't describe the feeling of hope it gave me. He opened the door and asked me again. I could see the loneliness in his eyes, the Oncoming Storm threatening to rip away what little foundation he had left to hang on to. My heart broke for him, having seem him go from having a glint in his eyes while solving a mystery and saving the world, and suddenly he seemed so broken and lost."

"He still gets that look sometimes. It's rarer now, but still happens," Clara said softly.

Rose nodded, since she now understood the loss he had suffered. "I knew I could help him to have more sparkle and less brokenness. I wanted to help him. I _needed_ to help him. So, I did like he said, the very first word he ever said to me, run. And I did… right into that wonderful blue box, and we never stopped running. It took a long time to see even a little progress, but his cold shell had started to melt. He was just starting to really live again, when we encountered a new fleet of insane, part human Daleks."

They both shuddered at that. Daleks were bad enough, but insane ones… Rose continued with her story. "So, there we are, doing everything possible to stop the Daleks from being able to transmat onto the station, and suddenly there's this stupid little girl that he'd apparently saved, crushing on him. He had just started to live again, then was confronted by his worst enemy, thinking he had sacrificed his own world, his own people, for nothing, right when he's at his most vulnerable, in comes this stupid girl with a crush trying to make a good impression on him."

"Lynda," Clara said in understanding causing Rose to nod.

"I've seen some pretty shit timing before… but that was award worthy."

"But, I don't understand. What has that got to do with Ashildr? She didn't do anything like that, and she certainly wasn't crushing on the Doctor at any time, let alone a vulnerable moment like that."

"No," Rose said with a scowl. "What she did was much worse."

"What?" Clara asked hoping they would finally get to the heart of the matter.

"You mean besides her part in luring the Doctor to Trap Street and kidnapping him, sending him to a torture chamber? How about the fact that without knowing you could regenerate, she killed you? And then later had the audacity to _run away with you_ in what she thought was to be your final moment."

Clara was again shocked by the tone of Rose's voice. Her mind was spinning trying to find the last piece of the puzzle that she was missing. It was starting to look clearer now, but there was still one key piece she was missing. "Well, I suppose if that's the only perspective you've seen from, I can understand your hostility. But there's still something you're not telling me. I can feel it. There's something else… it's like hidden layer in a cake but I'm just not…"

"It's nothing," Rose said evasively as she stood up from the grass.

"No," Clara said as she too stood and stepped in front of Rose. "It's something," she continued as she tried to make eye contact with the slightly taller girl in front of her. She put her small hands on either side of Rose's face, turning her to look her directly in the eyes, and she saw it, in the faint golden glow burning in her eyes. The same look she saw in the Doctor's eyes when he'd talk about the Time War… like he was sorry that he had survived it.

"No," Clara said with a soft gasp. "No, Rose. Not you too." She wasn't sure why Rose was so upset with herself, but could see it in her eyes, along with the glow of Bad Wolf just below the surface, ready to take over the instant that Rose would give up on herself. Bad Wolf still had tasks to complete, and would take Rose over completely if the girl gave up on herself.

"I hate her," Rose said, barely above a whisper. "I've never _hated_ before, but I hate her, and I hate myself for that," she admitted as she sank back down to the grass limply.

Clara kneeled in the grass right in front of Rose and sat back on her heels. "Don't do this, Rose. Don't go. You _are_ the Bad Wolf, but you don't have to let that consume you," Clara implored as she saw the faint glow brighten almost imperceptibly. "Please, Rose, please don't do this to me."

That caused Rose to focus, and she saw tears leaking out of Clara's eyes. She reached a hand up and brushed a tear away with the pad of her thumb. "My Impossible Girl," Rose said in that low whispery voice again that caused Clara to worry that Rose was losing herself to Bad Wolf.

Then the last piece clicked into place as she heard it again in her mind. ' _My Impossible Girl… she ran away with you…_ ' She realized then that Bad Wolf wasn't waiting below the surface to take control if Rose gave up on herself. Bad Wolf was the only thing keeping her going because Rose had already given up.

All that abstract time they had spent together in the abstract space that Bad Wolf created to put Clara back together again… the reason she felt so close to Rose, it had been Rose's compassion that caused Bad Wolf to do all that for her, to bring Clara back. Rose really was the Bad Wolf and at some point, while putting her back together, she had fallen in love with the Impossible Girl. The Impossible Girl that had just saved the Doctor so many times.

And then Rose saw her running _away_ from the Doctor. The Impossible Girl running away from the Doctor she worked so hard to save, with the Immortal that had inevitably played a part in almost killing them both. That had to be the breaking point. Rose gave up and Bad Wolf took over to save her.

But she couldn't let her give up. Clara had to bring Rose back. She had to. Because she felt just as strongly. She tried to ignore it, to hide from it, because it had seemed so sudden, coming with the influx of knowledge and memories that Bad Wolf gave her. She remembered that abstract time spent in the abstract space, but didn't really have any context to put it in perspective, since time there was virtually meaningless. But she wouldn't hide from it now, not if it could save Rose. It wasn't something sudden but something that had built up into a deep mutual affection while in the abstract, why should that scare her?

"Rose!" Clara almost shouted as she shook her by the shoulders lightly trying to get a reaction from her again. "Don't do this to me," she said again. "You can't leave me here all alone like this!" Clara didn't care that she was openly crying now. She was upset with herself for not seeing the problem sooner, for not realizing that Bad Wolf had been keeping Rose going all this time.

"Come back, Rose," she said through her tears. "You are the Bad Wolf. You created yourself to save the Doctor, and in the process found a frightened little Impossible Girl and saved her too. You can't leave! We just found each other again. You have to come back! You have to!"

Clara could feel her eyes burning as she tried to reach Rose, buried somewhere deep inside herself. She saw the golden glow in Rose's eyes flare brighter, a fight within. "That's it, Rose. Come on. I'm here. I'm not running away," she told her urgently. And Clara realized what she said was true. She wasn't running away anymore. She wasn't going to fear what she felt. She wasn't going to run from it just because it was new and sudden, exciting and scary, all rolled into one. She did the only thing she really wanted to do.

She placed her hands softly on either side of Rose's face again, leaned in, and kissed her. She didn't see the fire in Rose's eyes or her own change to a bright purple color. She didn't see the whole of the astronomy room flare with a bright purple energy. She just felt the softness of Rose's lips as she kissed the girl she fell in love with in another time and space. And then she felt Rose respond, deepening the kiss and pulling her closer.

After a few moments, Clara pulled back, looking into Rose's eyes again, seeing the golden glow had been replaced by a purple fire, before the fire faded and her eyes returned to their normal honey color, with a purple ring around the iris.

"Hi," Rose said, and then collapsed in Clara's arms. For her part, after an emotional rollercoaster the last few days had been, Clara panicked. She ran to the door and screamed at the top of her lungs for Jack to come and help her. When she'd seen him skid around the corner at the end of the hall, she bolted back to Rose. It was only a few seconds later that he joined her.

"What happened?" Jack asked as he checked Rose.

"I'm not entirely sure," Clara said. "We were talking, things started to make sense, then I realized Rose wasn't really here…"

"What?!" Jack exclaimed. "What do you mean?"

"It was Bad Wolf, Jack. Bad Wolf kept her going while Rose retreated inside herself. I tried everything I could to bring Rose out of it. Then she said 'Hi' and collapsed on me."

"Well, her pulse feels strong and her breathing suggests she's simply sleeping," he told her with a sigh of relief.

"Sleeping!" Clara half shrieked, still in a panic. She finally admits to herself that she's in love with Rose and she collapsed for a _nap_?

"Well, if it's like you said, and Bad Wolf was keeping her going, then it's likely that she's exhausted," Jack explained. Clara still had the wild, panicked look on her face, so he tried to calm her. "I think she just needs rest," he said as he picked his little sister up gently and carried her back to her room with Clara on his heels.

When they got there, Jack gently placed Rose into the hammock before Clara reached out and touched a finger to Rose's necklace. A moment later, her clothing shimmered downwards to become a comfortable set of pajamas. Another moment later and the same happened with Clara.

"What are you doing?" Jack asked her curiously.

"I'm going to stay with her," Clara told him firmly with a look that dared him to contradict her, even a little.

"She needs rest," Jack said with a raised eyebrow.

"And I'm going to make sure she gets it," Clara responded. "Thank you for helping, Jack. I wouldn't have been able to get her here alone, especially in a panic like I was."

"Are you going to tell me what really happened in there?" he inquired.

"Basically, what I said," she told him seriously. "We'll see what she remembers when she wakes up. Then I will only have to tell it once, and hopefully with a clearer head."

"Alright," Jack said with a sigh. "Don't go trying to wake her, just let her sleep. I know enough about the TARDIS to be able to put us in to temporal orbit in the vortex. I'll do that to make sure there's no disturbances."

When Jack had walked out of the room and down the hall to the console room, Clara pulled out her sonic and pointed it at the door, locking it. She then climbed into the hammock, snuggled close to Rose, and pulled a blanket over them.

"Rest now, my sweet Rose," Clara said as she stroked her hair for a moment, before resting her own head on her shoulder and throwing an arm over Rose to hold her close.

 **.oOo.**

It was the next morning when Rose first began to stir from her sleep. The first thing she realized was that she was no longer in the astronomy room, but instead in her hammock. All of a sudden, the memories from the previous day assaulted her mind. She had felt so foolish for hoping that Clara might return her feelings after she got her memories back from the fob. When Clara had suggested picking up that… that… Rose still didn't want to think about it, and started to shut down again.

It was only then that she realized she wasn't actually _alone_ in her hammock. Rose cracked an eye open and saw Clara, curled up tightly to her, as if afraid she might disappear, with her head resting in the crook of her neck. She knew Clara had been worried about her but Rose simply didn't have the strength or desire to swim back up to the surface of her mind.

As she looked Clara over carefully, she realized how peaceful she looked, certainly more so than in the last few days. Rose felt a bit guilty at that. She hadn't wanted anyone to worry about her. She just wanted to forget the world for a little while.

Fearing that she might be dreaming, and not wanting it to end, she closed her eyes again and snaked her arms around the sleeping girl, holding her close and drifting off into a light doze.

It was only an hour or so later that Clara began to stir, and a smile spread over her face as she felt warm arms holding her tightly. She burrowed into the source of the warm feeling, before her mind finally started up again and her eyes snapped open.

"Good morning," Rose said quietly with a warm smile that really reached her eyes.

Clara looked deep into Rose's eyes, looking for any glow or other sign that something was wrong, and finding nothing but the usual soothing honey color, now with a purple rim around the iris, and she smiled hesitantly, reaching a hand up to softly caress her cheek. "Is it really you, Rose? Are you back?"

"It's me," Rose confirmed. "Bad Wolf isn't separate anymore, we've merged, more or less," she said as way of explanation.

Clara practically pounced on Rose, rolling over and leaning up to capture the surprised girl's lips in a needy kiss, before pulling back with a deep blush.

"What was that for?" Rose asked with a happy smile. "Not that I mind. I'd quite like to wake up like this every morning is all."

Clara smiled through her blush. "You just keep being you, and I'll see what I can do about your mornings."

Rose held her tightly to her. "I'm so sorry if I worried you, Clara. I was just sort of… on auto-pilot, sulking in my own mind."

"I just wish you could have told me," Clara said softly, snuggling back down and kissing Rose lightly on the cheek. "It might have helped me figure out my own feelings sooner."

"You mean…" Rose started to ask, but couldn't form the words, afraid of the answer.

"That I'm completely and madly in love with you?" Clara asked with a nervous smirk playing across her face. "That might actually be a bit of an understatement."

This time, it was Rose that placed her hands on either side of Clara's face and leaned over to kiss her, slowly, tenderly, relishing the sparks igniting within her, before reluctantly pulling back. "That's a good thing," Rose said softly. "Since I am head over heels for you."

They were interrupted by a banging on the door and they could hear Jack's muffled voice coming through it. "Clara, if you don't open this door I'm going to get a blow torch and cut it open! You need to let her rest, not hover!"

Clara took her sonic from her pajama pocket and unlocked the door without getting up, only for Jack to practically fall into the room. "Blimey, have you been there all night?" she asked him. "I told you I was going to make sure she got her rest, Jack."

"And it was the best night's rest I've ever had," Rose spoke up, not letting go of Clara.

Jack, for his part, took it all in stride as he saw them wrapped up together, holing each other close. A part of him wanted to make a snarky joke, but another part of him thought it was just such an adorable sight, he simply couldn't. "Right then, I'll just go start some pancakes for breakfast or something," he said, with a relieved smile as he left, closing the door behind him.

"I think we broke Jack," Rose said with a little laugh.

"Maybe, but it sounds like we get pancakes out of the deal, so we can fix him after breakfast," Clara quipped as she reluctantly let go of Rose. "I suppose it's time to get up and ready for the day." She got out of the hammock and padded over towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Rose asked her with a hint of… something, in her voice.

"Well, I figure if I'm sticking around, I should probably find a room of my own so I can clean up and such," Clara responded with a bright smile.

"Y-You don't have to," Rose said nervously.

Clara's smile dropped a bit. "Well, I guess I can teleport back to my flat," she said a little dejectedly, thinking she had assumed too much.

"No!" Rose corrected immediately. "I didn't mean that. I-I-I…" Rose was far more nervous than she thought she should be, all things considered, but she took a deep breath and pushed forward. "I mean… you are welcome… here. If you want?"

"Oh," Clara said after a moment of thought, now realizing what Rose was offering. "Oooooooh," she reiterated with a saucy smile on her face now. "Bit sudden, that. But I don't mind if you don't."

Rose smiled hopefully at her and shook her head. "Not at all. You can even have the shower first if you want."

"Nah," Clara said as she walked to the door to the en-suite, stopping in the open doorway to look over her shoulder at Rose. "Wouldn't want you to miss breakfast," she said with teasing smile. Feeling bold, she sent a mental command to her necklace, and her sleep clothes retracted into it, leaving her wearing only her watch, necklace, and smile. "Might as well join me and save some time," she said, and walked into the en-suite, loving the look of awe on Rose's face.

Rose was shocked for a moment, until she heard water running, and then a wicked smile spread across her face as she issued the same command to her necklace and followed her love to the shower. They were still late to breakfast though.

 **.oOo.**

It was as they were finishing breakfast that Rose brought up another task she had to do. She had been working with the TARDIS on a way to accomplish it, and was thankful her sweet Dear of a ship had a rather simple solution.

"I think it's time we go see the Doctor," she told them. "And I'd like to bring a present."

"What sort of present?" Jack asked, curious what anyone, even Rose, would consider a good present for someone like the Doctor.

"His wife," Rose deadpanned.

Jack choked and ended up spitting his orange juice across the table, thankfully away from Rose and Clara. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Isn't she dead?" Clara asked.

"The Doctor thinks she is," Rose confirmed. "Their timelines were weird, never meeting in order. The first time the Doctor met her, was the day he thinks she died. The version you met that time was a copy of her mind stored in a computer, but we can do one better."

"Wait, wait, wait. Hang on a minute." Jack was really confused. "The Doctor's _married_?"

"Yes," Rose said. "And the Doctor thinks she died by plugging herself into a computer to give extra memory space to teleport over four thousand people to safety."

"But you think differently?" Clara inquired.

"I was talking with our sweetie here," Rose confirmed patting the wall affectionately. "She says it would be rather simple to connect the TARDIS instead, and teleport River out at the same time to maintain the time line."

"And we meet up with him at a point where their timelines are synched up!" Clara exclaimed catching on to what Rose was thinking.

"Exactly. That should actually be not long after you brought his TARDIS back to him."

"So, why the wait on that?" Jack asked, curious as to why it was only now considered.

"There's a little hiccup that the TARDIS was working out," Rose admitted.

"With the connector for the computer core?" Jack asked.

"With the Doctor's memory," Rose corrected.

"She came up with a way to overcome the neuroblock?" Clara asked hopefully.

"Yep," Rose said, popping the p like her Doctor. "Our sonics can now send a signal that will reverse it and restore his memory."

"Well then, let's get to work," Clara said with a grin.

 **.oOo.**

River looked over at the Doctor where she had cuffed him. She felt terrible for that, but knew he couldn't sacrifice himself for this. She was just gathering all the connectors she would need to complete the process using herself instead, when she heard the most amazing sound.

She stepped around the corner from where she was, and saw a large purple crystal in the shape of a teardrop with a little bulb, like a beacon, on the tip. When it split down the center and _opened_ , she was surprised to see two girls step out.

"Who are you," River asked mistrustfully.

"We don't have time right now to tell you the whole story to get you to trust us," Rose said with a smirk. "Ironic since you found yourself in the same position with the Doctor just a little while ago. So, to shorten things, I'm just going to tell you two words. Bad Wolf."

River's eyes nearly popped out of her head. The Doctor had told her all about Bad Wolf, and how she came to be, and how he left her in another universe with his clone, thinking she was in love with him. "Rose," she said in a whisper.

"Right in one, Professor. We're going to teleport you out just as you hook up this TARDIS to the computer core, so we can maintain the timelines," Rose explained.

"But the shock would fry the TARDIS and possibly cause it to explode. Can't have that happen again," River said with a look of concern.

"Maybe his Type 40 TARDIS. She's a lovely ship, don't get me wrong, but not equipped like ours. She's one of the Time Lord's final experiments from the Time War. Experimental Void TARDIS X-201," Clara said as she handed over an end of a connection cable.

River took the cable with no further argument, happy for the chance to not have to sacrifice herself, and if it came down to it, they could all get out on the Doctor's TARDIS with minimal damage to the time line.

Rose and Clara returned to the TARDIS to begin the process, making last minute adjustments and making sure the teleport lock on River was holding. It was set to teleport her the instant the cables were fully connected.

The minutes ticked by, and Rose gasped as she heard the Doctor's voice from outside the TARDIS, and she wanted to just run out and give him a hug and let him know everything would be okay, but she couldn't. Clara gave her hand a gentle squeeze of support, and they continued their work.

Then, all hell broke loose. Sparks flew out of some of the console panels, lights dimmed, River appeared in a flash of light, and then all the power seemed to cut as sparks shined under the central floor and the entire room went dark, except the time rotor which continued to shine with purple light.

"What the hell was that about," Jack asked as her heard Rose furiously working at the controls in silence for a few minutes.

"It worked," Rose said a few moments later with a sigh. "Everyone teleported safely, there was an unforeseen side effect though and it… well, it sort of… knocked her out."

"Whoa! I didn't even know it was possible to knock out a TARDIS," Jack said.

"Normally, it's not," Rose said.

"But we're in the _Library_. The entire core of the planet is a hard drive," Clara stated.

"During the connection, it poured _everything_ through at once. Basically, we just got a copy of the entire library," Rose explained.

Slowly, the systems powered back on, and the lights came back a few at a time, before the main lighting track around the room glowed to life and began to spin idly.

"We might want to do something, the Doctor is almost free of his cuffs," River said.

Jack quickly disconnected the cable and tossed it out the doors, closing them quietly behind him. "We're disconnected and sealed."

"Good," Rose said. "If he investigates, and sees the cable connecting to nothing, he should, hopefully, assume it was connected to the crystal and think it's part of the system."

"Looks like he's leaving," Clara said from her place at one of the monitors.

"He'll be back soon, we should wait in case he decided to have a look around after he fixes the computer core," Rose said pulled a lever and then sat down in the pilot seat. "I've enabled silent running so if he does find us, he doesn't hear anything that sounds like a TARDIS."

"Since we have a bit of a wait," River began, "do you think we can have the explanation now? I'd really like to know how you came to be here, with an experimental TARDIS at that."

"You just recently came from the Singing Towers, yeah?" Rose deflected.

"Yes. He was staring at the towers again when I had to leave," River said.

"And when we leave here, we're going to take you back to that point," Clara explained. "Just after you left, so your timelines will finally be in synch."

River sat down at hearing that. She had never considered what it would be like to travel with the Doctor with their timelines matching up. "That's… I'm not sure what to think."

"A bit scary that," Rose nodded in understanding, "The idea of traveling with the person you love when you're finally on an even footing," she said with a shy glance at Clara.

"Sounds like you've had some experience with that," River said, having missed the look.

"Considering how I found these two this morning," Jack said with a smirk as Rose and Clara blushed deeply. "I'd say they are just starting that adventure themselves."

"Now then," River began. "Time to hear the whole story."

 **.oOo.**

The Doctor wiped a tear from his eye as he listened to the haunting melodies from the singing towers. He had just watched River leave, and it was breaking his hearts knowing she was going to her death. He had lost people before. He had hurt before. But this was destroying him. More than Rose and Donna and Amy combined.

He still had the TARDIS, at least. He could hear the faint sound of her trying to soothe his broken hearts, trying to give him hope. Hope? That couldn't be right. This wasn't a time for hope, it was a time for mourning. Then he realized the sound was getting louder, as if the TARDIS was landing next to him.

He turned around and was shocked to see a purple crystal materializing before him, in the same way his TARDIS would. If it appeared like a TARDIS and quacked like a TARDIS, maybe it was. But who was it? And why here, now? Once it had fully landed, a split appeared down the middle of it, and what were apparently doors swung inwards.

When Captain Jack Harkness stepped out, the Doctor was completely confused and wanted to know what was going on. "Jack? Where the hell did you get a TARDIS?"

"Nice to see you too, Doctor," Jack said with a cheeky smile. "To answer your question, not my TARDIS. We decided to bring you a present, though."

"What?" the Doctor said in complete confusion. Jack apparently knew someone else with a TARDIS and they came to bring him a present? Was he having a grief induced dream?

"Hello, Sweetie," said a voice he never expected to hear again as River stepped out.

"River? But you just left? Wait, don't tell me, I've finally lost my mind and this is what my brain designed to help me cope," he suggested.

"Nope," said another voice stepping out of the TARDIS. "We used our TARDIS as a hook up in place of her in the library."

"I've seen you before…" the Doctor said, still very confused. "You worked at that diner in America, where I found my TARDIS decorated with your picture and a bunch of roses."

"You never told me about that," Rose said to Clara as she stepped out and the Doctor stared at her with a mixture of shock and horror.

"Must have been a subconscious thing," Clara said with a slight blush.

"Rose…" the Doctor said barely above a whisper. "You can't be here! Even my deluded mind wouldn't conjure you up since you're supposed to be in another universe."

"You go to all that trouble to save me and keep the time line intact," River started in an amused voice, "and he doesn't even give me a proper kiss."

"I've hit my regeneration limit and am rapidly going insane," the Doctor mused out loud. "I used up too much trying to destroy Davros."

"Actually," Rose began. "If you want another surprise… you don't have a regeneration limit. And neither does your wife."

"What!?" the Doctor and River shouted in unison.

"That's more like it," Clara said with a smile.

"That's impossible!" the Doctor exclaimed as he sat heavily in a chair on the balcony.

"No, Impossible is me," Clara said in a snarky manner. "That's just a bit unlikely."

"Two words for you, Doctor," Rose said as she pulled out her sonic. "Bad Wolf." And then she pointed the sonic at him and activated the signal that would disable and remove the neuroblock.

The Doctor stared with wide eyes as his memories flooded back. "Clara!" he exclaimed as he rushed over and picked the surprised girl up in a hug and spun her around.

"Oi!" Rose said with some amusement. "Set my girlfriend down and do that with your freshly returned wife, Doctor."

The Doctor did exactly that, rushing over to River and giving her a deep kiss, before rushing back over to Clara and checking her pulse and then her neck.

"You've got your pulse back! And the chronolock is gone!"

"Regeneration will do that," Clara said with a smirk, causing the Doctor to sit back down in shock.

The Doctor opened and closed his mouth several times, trying to find the right words and failing most spectacularly, before River piped in.

"Okay, that's enough. I think you broke my husband."

"How?" the Doctor finally managed to get out.

"I told you," Rose said. "Bad Wolf."

"You're going to need to be a bit more specific," he managed to get out.

Rose let out a sigh. This was going to be a long story. "You know some of what I did as Bad Wolf, like destroying the Dalek fleet and poor Jack here."

"Hey!" Jack said indignantly.

"But I told you the truth," Rose continued. "I _am_ the Bad Wolf. I created myself to save you. Imagine my surprise when I reached out through time trying to do that anywhere you needed it, when I find this most Impossible Girl already doing that. The least I could do was save her, and so I created a small abstract pocket of space-time in which to put her pieces back together. But I had to add a little something extra to ensure she would survive the process."

"While time had little meaning in that abstract," Clara picked up, "we spent a lot of it together as she stitched me back up, and got to know each other on a deeper level than I would have ever thought possible. We fell in love," Clara said with a smile and slight blush as she reached for Rose's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"Clara and I both now have an ability similar enough to be called regeneration, but still rather different," Rose continued. "I did a lot while I had all that power. One of the things I did, after looking through your timeline, was to make your regeneration ability permanent, as well as River's so you would never have to be alone or say goodbye. There's actually six of us now, all able to keep on going."

"Where is Ashildr?" the Doctor said with a frown, assuming she was the sixth.

Rose visibly stiffened, before Clara snaked an arm around her waist and pulled her in tight to her, letting her know she wasn't going anywhere. "She took Rose's place with your clone in the other universe," Clara explained.

"Then… who's the sixth person?" he said in confusion deciding not to press the obviously delicate issue of Ashildr, sensing that Rose had even more of a problem with her than he did.

"I… actually can't tell you that, yet," Rose said with a sad look.

"Why not?" the Doctor asked with a stern look.

"Because we haven't actually…" she trailed off and her eyes suddenly flared, one gold one purple as she looked like she was having an internal debate.

"Rose?" Clara turned her around and took her face in her hands. "Are you okay? You're not slipping away again are you?"

The glow faded from her eyes a moment later and Rose turned to Jack. "I didn't actually know when the best time to pull her out of there was," she said as she stepped over to Jack and ran her sonic over his vortex manipulator. "Jack, please go pick her up, I just gave you the coordinates. Take her back to the cave, show her the TARDIS, explain what it is, what it does, and most importantly, explain regeneration. Tell her the Doctor will be by in about a week."

Jack nodded and disappeared in a flash of light, while the Doctor knit his eyebrows together. "Why a week?"

"She needs some time to accept and absorb everything, Doctor. It's been a few regenerations since she saw you," Rose explained.

"Who?" River asked, having not heard this part of the plan.

"Jenny," Clara answered when she realized who Rose was talking about. It was something they had shared in the abstract, but not really at the front of her mind.

The Doctor looked even more confused now. "But… she's seen me a lot, her and Vastra and Strax. You helped them take care of me after I regenerated into this face, Clara."

"No, Doctor. Not that Jenny," Rose said in exasperation. "Your _daughter_ Jenny."

"That's… that's… not possible! She died and didn't regenerate," he all but shouted.

"Think, Doctor, about your 'fightin hand' I think you called it," Rose said.

"First fifteen hours," he said as his eyes went wide in understanding. "It had only been maybe twelve hours since the progenation machine created her. She wasn't killed, she entered a healing coma!"

"And she took a shuttle from the planet. She ran, Doctor. Looking for you," Clara said.

"Then what are we doing sitting here?" River asked.

"Her shuttle ran out of fuel and is drifting in space," Rose said. "Jack just brought her back to where we've been staying. He's going to explain to her about regeneration and such so that she knows why the Doctor doesn't look like she knew him."

"What was it you said to Jack about showing and explaining the TARDIS to her?" the Doctor asked as his eyebrows knit together in confusion again.

"Be careful where you aim those eyebrows, Doctor. Even confused they look like attack eyebrows," Rose said with a laugh.

"You're not going to deflect the question that easily," he responded.

Rose sighed. "The TARDIS that you stole from Gallifrey while trying to rescue Clara is just sitting there, unused," she explained. "It's a Type 90, I think. Anyway, it couldn't bond with Clara as she was basically time looped. She will form a bond with Jenny, though."

"Okay, that all brings up a whole new set of questions, but just one first," the Doctor said, trying to piece everything together in his head. "If that TARDIS is back wherever, what did you come here in?"

"You've seen it before, actually," Rose said as she exposed her watch and used it to display a hologram of the Sphere.

"The Void Ship?"

"Yup," she said, popping the p like he used to in a previous regeneration. "The Daleks hadn't just stolen the Genesis Arch from the Time Lords, but this too. She's an experimental TARDIS, designed to travel in a time vortex… or the void. So experimental, she was never given a Type classification, but designated X-201."

"Who picked out the crystalline outer shell?" he asked, assuming the chameleon circuit was either stuck like his, or not set to random.

"She did," Rose said as she patted the crystal affectionately. "As fond as I am of your blue police box, I didn't want to cause any confusion, so asked her to pick out something that was as wondrously beautiful as she is, and she picked this. I liked it so much I made it the default design for the outer shell."

They sat in silence for a few moments, just chewing on everything that had been discussed so far, before River asked the obvious question.

"So, what now?"

"Well, I was thinking you and the Doctor could land his TARDIS in our console room, and then Clara and I will take you both to see Jenny," Rose suggested.

"Six immortals, three TARDISes, and a decent size cave to park them all in," Clara said. "We can all relax and catch up and decided where to go from there."

 **.oOo.**

Jack was sitting in the console room of Jenny's TARDIS, chatting away with her, when they heard two other TARDISes materialize outside the open door. They ran out to see a purple crystal and a blue box sitting there.

The doors opened with River and the Doctor stepping out of the blue box and Rose and Clara stepping out of the purple crystal. Rose pulled out her sonic and waved it at her TARDIS, then the Doctor's TARDIS, and finally Jenny's TARDIS, before nodding in satisfaction.

"What did you just do?" Jack asked curiously.

"Temporal-relative communications link," Rose explained. "All three TARDISes now have the ability to contact either of the other two relative to this moment, wherever we are in time or space."

"So, if the Doctor and River were to fly off right now," Clara continued for her, "and we waited five minutes to give them a call, they would get it five minutes after they left here."

Jenny ran over to the Doctor and give him a big welcoming hug. "Hello, Dad. Jack explained the new face. How long has it been for you?"

"A few hundred years," the Doctor admitted, returning the hug somewhat awkwardly.

"So," River began. "As… cozy, as this place is… maybe we should pick a TARDIS and sit down to have a nice long chat."

"I actually have some ideas about that," Rose admitted with a little grin.


	3. Chapter 3: Plans and Ideas

**_Chapter 3: Plans and Ideas_**

"That's… ambitious," River said later on as they were all sitting around in the library of the Doctor's TARDIS.

"I think it's brilliant," Clara said with a smile at Rose.

But Rose was looking at the Doctor, watching him piece it together. "You remember, don't you, Doctor? When the beast spoke."

"Representing the Torchwood Archive," the Doctor quoted quietly. "So, Torchwood survives in some form or other."

"And I know of a good asteroid sitting around abandoned just waiting for someone else to move in," River said.

"You seriously want to go back to Demons Run given its history?" the Doctor asked.

"It was the people that occupied it at the time that caused the history, not the place itself. You have to admit, that part of their plan was pretty smart. It's a good base."

"Where would we move it though? It wasn't exactly a secret base," the Doctor supplied.

"Why don't we talk to the Architect about that?" Jack asked as an idea sprang forth.

"Who's that?" Jenny asked.

"She's the leader of the Shadow Proclamation," the Doctor responded as he looked at Jack curiously. "How do you even know about them? Humans didn't know about the Shadow Proclamation until the sixty-third century, and it took them another four centuries to ratify it."

"The Time Agency knew," Jack replied. "It was the highest decree of the Agency that it never be known outside of the agency though until the official introduction."

"What is it you're thinking of, Jack?" Rose asked, rather curious herself.

"Well, the Shadow Proclamation is a present focused organization. If the Architect agrees, Torchwood could become a semi-autonomous department focused on temporal issues that they aren't equipped to deal with."

"That's a brilliant idea, Jack!" Rose exclaimed with a smile. She looked over at the Doctor and saw him deep in thought. "What is it, Doctor?"

"It's just… as much as the Shadow Proclamation tries to do good and keep the peace, the Time Lords always had a rocky relationship with them at best," the Doctor replied.

"Well it's not like you would have to be a direct part of the organization," Jack said after a moment of thought.

"That's right," Clara piped in with an idea of her own. "You could be a consultant, like you have been for UNIT. And Torchwood could also be your backup if you come across a situation that you needed help with."

"You really think this can work?" the Doctor asked, looking at Rose.

"We need to recruit a few more people, but yeah. I think it can work," she replied with a smile and a glint in her eyes.

"And let me guess, you have an idea for who else to invite to this party."

"I can almost hear your thoughts," Clara said crossing her arms and tapping her fingers against her arm. "You really want to ask them to pull up roots and do this?"

"Well, not exactly pull up roots, but anyone that's spent more than a few hours with a Doctor usually doesn't want to go back to a normal life," Rose responded.

"What are you thinking," the Doctor asked in confusion.

"Jack," Rose started in answer to the question hanging in the air. "You and Jenny go pick up Micky, Martha, and Gwen. Clara, you and River will go pick up her parents, and the Doctor and I will go get Sarah-Jane and Donna."

"But, Donna will _die_ if she remembers me," the Doctor said with some urgency.

"Not if we augment her a little bit with the chameleon arch," Rose said with a raised eyebrow as if challenging his claim.

"That's… that's… that's the craziest, most brilliant idea I've heard of in a long time!"

"I thought my parents were stuck in the past though, because of the weeping angels," River said looking at the Doctor in confusion.

"That was true when I said it," the Doctor replied with a bit of a twinkle in his eyes again. "It was because of the circumstances in how they were sent back and also because of the TARDIS being part of the events in that cluster of paradoxes."

"Our TARDIS, on the other hand," Clara started with a smile, "was not part of those events. On top of that, being an experimental Void TARDIS, she has some extra capabilities that will make navigating through the web of paradoxes safer."

"Jenny," Rose said looking at the younger woman. "Set the outer shell of your TARDIS to look like the Doctor's. I'll do the same with ours before Clara and River take it, that way our friends won't be as alarmed when they see us materialize."

"We'll all meet back up at Demons Run," the Doctor said. "From there we can assess the base and make any further plans after that."

Rose walked back to her TARDIS to set the outer shell and the space-time coordinates for picking up River's parents before she headed to the Doctor's TARDIS to begin their journey.

 **.oOo.**

"Amy, I'm home," Rory said as he walked into the house after coming back from work. He found Amy sitting on the sofa with a box of books. "So how did it go?" he asked her.

Amy pick up a book from the box and handed it to him with a smile on her face. "It's done. 'Summer Falls' has officially been published and is heading to book stores right now."

"That's fantastic!" he said with a grin as he set the book down and pulled her into a hug, spinning her around.

"I want to go out to dinner tonight and celebrate," Amy said as he set her back down.

"Great! What were you thinking? Italian?"

Before she could answer, a faint sound caught her attention that slowly grew, causing both her and Rory to spin and look out the window into the back garden in shock, seeing a familiar blue box slowly appearing.

They looked at each other briefly before running out of the house into the garden as the Police Box fully appeared in view, both staring at it with mouths open in shock. This was supposed to be impossible. The Doctor told her before she turned her back on the Angel that he would never be able to see them again.

A moment later the door opens, and a relatively short girl stepped out with shoulder length brown hair, and not a bow tie to be seen. This couldn't be the Doctor, but then who was it? Amy was shocked when the girl turned to look directly at Rory.

"Hello, Nina. Did you miss me?" she asked with a cheeky smile and a soft chuckle.

"Nina? What?" Rory stuttered in confusion before his brain kicked back into gear and the memories flooded his mind. "Oswin?!"

"Clara," a recognizable voice called as she stepped out from the TARDIS, "could you please not torture my parents until after they recover from their shock?" River asked.

That was enough to snap Amy out of it and she pounced on her grown daughter pulling her into a fierce hug. "River! What's going on? I thought we'd never see you again!"

River held on for dear life, happier than she thought possible at seeing her parents again and trying not to let her emotions overwhelm her. She was surprisingly choked up at this opportunity and couldn't form words just yet.

"Oi!" Clara called out to Rory. "Don't just stand there, Beaky. Go hug your daughter!"

Rory did just that, throwing his arms around both River and Amy, and hoping this wasn't just a dream. His mind was racing trying to figure out what was going on, but for the moment, he would just relish in the feeling of their little family reunion.

"Mum, Dad, I think we should go inside and sit down. We've got quite a story to tell."

 **.oOo.**

Rose was at one of the side consoles of the Doctor's TARDIS programming the chameleon arch with just the right augmentations to allow Donna to survive having her memories restored, while the Doctor was flying them to the best point in time to pick her up at. In a flash of domestic compassion, he decided to inform her family first, and set them down in the back garden just after Donna drove off to the store.

Sylvia was at in the kitchen when she saw the blue box start to fade in and out of existence through the window and called out for her father. He came into the kitchen just in time to see the TARDIS fully materialize. When Rose stepped out, they both rushed outside to see what was going on.

"You can't park that here!" Sylvia exclaimed. "What if Donna comes home and starts to remember?"

Wilf on the other hand was far more jovial as he pulled Rose into a hug. "How are you, sweetheart? Is the Doctor with you?"

Rose smiled at the friendly gesture and nodded to the door of the TARDIS where the Doctor stepped out. "That's him. He told you about regeneration, didn't he?"

"He did," Wilf said, slightly gobsmacked. "But I wasn't sure what to think when he told me about it. Is that really him?"

In response, the Doctor spoke up. "When I brought Donna home to you, after she saved the whole of creation, the last thing you said to me when I was leaving was that you would look up at the stars and think of me."

Wilf then let go of Rose and pulled the Doctor into a hug which he returned awkwardly, causing Rose to giggle.

"Excuse me," Sylvia said with a frown. "But I would like an answer to my question. What happens if Donna sees your blue box and starts to remember?"

"That's why we're here," Rose started.

"Rose came up with a way to safely restore Donna's memories," the Doctor continued.

Sylvia looked shocked at that but Wilf had a beaming smile as he responded. "That's wonderful. Come on in and we'll have a cuppa tea while we wait for her to come home."

As they were sitting in the kitchen, the Doctor explained what the chameleon arch was capable of and Rose explained how they were going to use it to enhance Donna. "As far as current period earth is concerned," Rose said, "she will still register as human. But the truth is she will be a bit more advanced, allowing her brain to be capable of holding and dealing with the advanced consciousness she developed as a result of her accident."

"So, she will be able to travel with you again?" Wilf asked with a tear in his eye.

Rose smiled while the Doctor responded. "If she wants to."

Before anything else could be said, Donna walked in the front door with a small bag of groceries that she walked directly into the kitchen and set down on the counter. "You didn't tell me we were having company." Donna said as she started putting things away, never once noticing the big blue box out the window.

Rose stood and walked over to her, introducing herself. "Hello, Donna, I'm Rose. I have something I need to tell you."

"What's that then?" Donna asked as she turned to face her.

"We need to take you back to the TARDIS," Rose said.

Donna's eyes rolled back in her head and she promptly collapsed, fortunately with Rose and the Doctor right there to catch her.

"What happened?" Wilf asked in concern.

"Nothing," the Doctor responded. "Just a trigger I put in place to keep her safe. If anyone was to talk about the TARDIS, her mind would shut down and put her to sleep for an hour."

"But she's going to be alright, isn't she?" Sylvia asked.

"Yes," Rose responded. "An hour is plenty of time to do what we need to. We just wanted her to be unconscious for the procedure. It won't be as painful as it would be for a Time Lord fully changing species, but it will still be quite an uncomfortable experience during the process. We'd rather spare her that part of it."

"Come on," the Doctor said as he helped Rose to carry Donna. "Let's get her into the TARDIS infirmary."

As short while later, they were all in the infirmary and the Doctor was placing the device over Donna's head when Wilf spoke up.

"You're sure she won't feel anything?"

"Yes," Rose said as the Doctor began the procedure. "That was the whole point of knocking her out. It has only been about fifteen minutes. The process will take almost double that, and then we just have to wait another fifteen minutes for her to wake up and she should be absolutely fine."

Wilf was reaching for Donna's hand when the Doctor stopped him. "No! We can't touch her during the procedure. It could contaminate the sample and harm her in ways I can't imagine. We just have to wait for it to finish now."

Wilf sighed and walked over to sit next to his daughter who pulled him into a hug to hide her own concern. The wait was agonizing. Donna looked peaceful, but waiting was worse than they ever could have imagined. When the process was finally complete, the Doctor removed the device from her head.

"I'll be in the console room," the Doctor said as he put the device away.

"You're not going to wait for her to wake up?" Wilf asked in confusion.

"It's best if she doesn't see me right away."

"But, I thought all this was supposed to fix that?" Sylvia said in concern.

Rose chuckled slightly causing them to look at her. "It's not that," she said. "It's that I will need to explain to her about regeneration before she will know who the Doctor is, and he doesn't want to deal with her temper when she remembers how he blocked her memories to save her."

Wilf cringed slightly at the thought of Donna in a full temper, but Sylvia seemed to have a slightly satisfied smirk on her face as the Doctor walked out. The smirk was quickly replaced with concern however as they waited for Dona to come around.

It was a bit longer than they expected, nearly half an hour later, when Donna began to stir. Rose was immediately by her side with a cup of water. "Come on, sit up, Donna. Have a drink of water and take a moment to regain your bearings."

"Rose?" Donna questioned as she sat up and took a sip before looking around the room. "Mum, Grandad? What's going on?"

"Donna, do you know where you are?" Rose asked.

After looking around the room, she responded. "It looks like I'm in the TARDIS sick bay. But why?"

"Do you remember the metacrisis?" Rose asked her carefully.

Donna's eyes glazed over briefly as she thought back and her face suddenly sported a scowl. "Where the bloody hell is the Doctor!? I'm gonna kick him right up the backside!"

Rose smiled at her. "There's the Donna I know. Try to calm down though. He did what he had to in order to save your life at the time. Do you remember anything about regeneration?"

"Yeah," Donna said, having actually calmed down a little. "Has he gone and changed his face then?"

"A couple of times," Rose said with a smile.

"Hold on. How are you here? I thought you were in the parallel world," Donna said with some confusion.

"That's a long story, one I'll gladly tell you over dinner. Let's go collect the Doctor and then get something to eat."

 **.oOo.**

A/N: So, this is as far as I got with this story and it completely died from within my mind. It went in a lot of wrong directions and just sort of fell apart on me. I lost sight of what I had wanted to write, which was a love story between Rose and Clara. So I am going to completely rewrite this from scratch, hopefully without the rushed feeling it gives me when I reread it.

I am marking this story as complete and leaving it up for anyone that wants to adopt it or take inspiration from it. I'm sorry if I got anyone's hopes up with this story. This is part of why I never wanted to post a story until it was truly complete. I hate the idea of abandoning a story when others might enjoy where it's going, but as a writer, when a story really gets away from you, you can either run with it, or close it down. I can't run with this one anymore. I will be keeping some things in the rewrite, however, such as the void TARDIS, the wrist computers probably, definitely the necklaces. Sorry again for abandoning this one.


End file.
